The Boyhood of an Inventor - Early Television Foundation

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THE BOYHOOD OF AN INVENTOR
THE BOYHOOD
OF
AN INVENTOR
C.
FRANCIS JENKINS
WASHINGTON,
1931
D. C.
COPYRIGHT, 1931, BY
C. FRANCIS JENKINS
WASHINGTON, D. C.
C. Francis Jenkins
Born in the country, north of Dayton, Ohio, in
1867, of Quaker parents. Spent boyhood on a farm
near Richmond, Indiana. Attended country school;
a nearby high school; and Earlham College. "Ex
plored" wheatfields and timber regions of northwest,
and cattle ranges and mining camps of southwest
Came to Washington, D. C., early
and served as secretary to Sumner I. Kim-
United States.
in 1890,
U.
Saving Service. Resigned in 1895 to
take up inventing as a profession. Built the prototype
of the motion picture projector now in every picture
ball,
S. Life
theatre the world over; developed the spiral-wound
and produced
and mechanism for
paraffined all-paper liquid container;
the
first
photographs by
viewing distant scenes by radio, i.e., television. Has
over four hundred patents, American and foreign;
radio,
and maintains a private laboratory
He
is
a
member
in
Washington.
of the Franklin Institute, the
Amer
Advancement of Science, and
founder of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers.
Has several times been honored by scientific and
other bodies for original research and attainment.
ican Association for the
Vll
Text Subjects
Birthplace Ohio
A lonely buggy ride
Moves to Indiana
New home associations
New Garden Quaker
" meeting
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27
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35
46
47
house
The
The
attractions of gran'ther's
pioneer's old log cabin
Pioneer and fireside scenes
"
home
An
A
Indian uprising
broken arm and the springhouse
The
attractions of home surroundings
old-fashioned garden
The boy cuts thru his first obstruction
A visit to the boy's birthplace
An
An
A
early locomotive
collie
playmate
Old Frank, the favorite lead horse
A
"shin plaster," his first profit
First inventions
Party entertainments and boyhood sports
The boy breaks his arm second time
The farm machinery his province
50
58
59
First visit to the Pacific Coast
The boy
returns
home
Visits southwest United States
Returns for Government employ
Makes
in
Washington, D.
C...
.
greater inventions, motion pictures ....
Builds first motion picture theatre
Franklin Institute awards gold medals
Resigns Government employ to take up inventing as a pro
first of his
65
69
78
79
79
87
98
fession
The Hopi snake dance
Builds
first automobile in Washington
Court decides priority in motion picture invention
101
Invents spirally-wound paraffine container
First auto tourist to Pacific Coast
War
activities, and movies from the air
Founds the Society of Motion Picture Engineers
Buys his first flying machine
Perfects the Chronoteine Camera
Jenkins Laboratories set up to develop vision by radio.
First photographs by radio
Colonel Henderson's guest at night-flying experiment ....
First radiomovies and television
Six-month experiment weather maps by radio to ships at sea
.
.
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108
Ill
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138
145
150
Beginning regular scheduled broadcast of radiomovies
Sells visual radio development
Seagrave-Gar Wood boat race
Purchases his first cabin type airplane
Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins fly to Richmond, Ind., for honorary
.
D.Sc. degree
.
158
169
170
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174
Demonstrates two-way airplane communication,
ington-Detroit
Makes Bobby Jones slow motion
.
golf stroke
Is guest at opening of Ludington Air Line
Sets up new laboratory
Wash
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181
186
190
Broadcast Subjects
The Genesis of Radio
The Engineer and His Tools
The Law of Free Movement
Evolution of Civilization
Washington, the City of Enchantment
The Picture of Peace
The Value of a Hobby
The Way of the Inventor
205
211
217
229
237
245
251
261
Illustrations
Frontispiece
Paternal grandparents
Maternal grandparents
Parents in war-time costume
An Indiana pioneer's home
The
red -headed boy
Indiana forest
Largest walnut tree
Sundial 800 B. C
Quaker Poet Bryant
Tallow candles
Self-rake reaper
1830
Quaker meeting house
Wilson sewing machine 1848
Cutting wheat with sickle
Threshing wheat with flail
Grandfather clock 1867
An
Cape Cod lantern
A
flax carder
Spinning wheel
Water-wheel grist-mill
Cradling wheat
Old blacksmith
Pot and Crane
Mt. Vernon "living room"
Gathering maple sap
Spinning linen thread
Writing with quill pens
Old covered wagon
Quaker President of U. S
Indian in war bonnet
Pioneer in buckskin suit
Indiana deer
Wildcat or bobcat
"Now
I lay
me"
A young physician
Candle-flame fairies
barnyard dinner
pioneer's cabin
A
A
Sewing by hand
Loading hay
Hollyhocks
"Artists in those days"
Old wooden
Coaloil
lamp
pump
1859
iv
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1575
sewing machine 1846
Early B. & O. locomotive
Modern crack locomotive
Steel sewing needles
Howe
Fan mill for cleaning
"Ask for it"
The brothers
Basket
A
of
grain
pups
jerk-line
team
Black beauty
Arm-load of "kitnas"
The boy
in Sunday clothes
buggy
Snowtime
An
old
Cottontail rabbit
Soap bubbles
Scott's speech recorder
An old Daguerreotype
1866
Morse's
1837
first
telegraph
Young train dispatcher
Ben Franklin printing press
"Old swimming hole"
Oldest known hammer
3-ton steam hammer
1732
Early static machine
The sewing bee
Lincoln, the rail-splitter
"Treading out the corn"
Pitching horseshoes
A
blooded ram
Making her own
clothes
Applebutter time
David Copperfield and his mother
Peter Cooper locomotive 1829
First trolley car
Modern
electric
1846
locomotive
Prof. Henry's electric motor
1831
Prof. Thompson induction motor
1888
The tea party
"It's just make-believe"
Early Bell telephone 1876
Prof. A. Graham Bell
The Iron mule
The boyhood home
Joke on Uncle Charles
Rip Van Winkle
First white child born in Arctic
Old one-horse shay
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46
Threshing wheat by power
Modern plowing
Self-binder for
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48
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49
50
50
wheat
The
largest grapevine known
Electric horseless carriage
Bicycle of 1885
Freighting in the desert
Crossing plains in auto
Logging in the snow
1910
51
51
Riding logs in millpond
The runway to the saws
Double-bitted saw
In Yosemite Park
Redwood
trees of California
Yosemite Falls
Combination harvester- thresher
Star fish
Deer horns
Cub bear
A papoose carrier
Black bear
Wyoming sage
Edward Muybridge
Jaquin Miller
Buffalo Bill gun
Arizona mining camp
Colorado gold mine
Young
engineer
.
A plain's horse
Arizona cactus
Mexican mines
Old stage coach
An
old bell-ring phone
Samuel M. Bryan
Mexican corn grinders
Medal
for artistic excellence
Wireless phone prophecy
Arlington talks to Paris
United States Capitol
Capitol from the air
Washington Monument
Sumner I. Kimball
The lone patrolman
Coast Guard surfboat
Hamilton-Burr dueling pistol
First motion picture camera
I. D.
Boyce
Arthur J. McElhone.
.
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70
First
motion picture projector
Early chronoteine camera
Prototype of all theatre projectors
Franklin Institute medals
U. S. Museum Exhibit
First motion picture dancer
Old C. & O. Canal
Children chained on canalboat
Virginia mountaineer's cabin
The "Peacemaker" of 1894
Atlanta Exposition projector
Langley's model power plane
The Wright man-carrying plane
1908
Curtis plane
Early
Curtis plane in the air
Motion picture developing tray
Motor
printer
Alexander Graham
Bell's letter
Maryland State College camera
Niagara Falls
An
early perforator
First camera in Klondike
Camera for Burton Holmes
First commercial projector
Plant growth study camera
Automatic box-capper
Card phantoscope
Motion picture toy
Pueblo of Walpi
Hopi India n blanket loom
The
old town crier
Hopi apartment house
A Hopi maiden
A Hopi matron
His wealth
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in jewelry
Grinding corn
Hopi basket weaver
Hopi snake dancers
Hopi priest in daily garb
Snake dancers and visitors
Mrs. Jenkins
A
typical inventor's home
First automobile in Washington
First auto with engine in front
First "Sight-seeing" bus
Paper containers for liquids
Undersea motion pictures
The Graphoscope for education
XIV
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106
First transcontinental tour
Prismatic ring (disc type)
Prismatic ring (band type)
Prismatic ring test rig
Mr. Jenkins pilots flying boat
Radio picture of President Harding
President Harding's letter
Radio photo transmitter
Radio photo receiver
Radio photo of Secretary Hoover
Hoover's
letter of appreciation
of Governor Pinchot
Radio photo
Pinchot's letter of commendation
Radio photo of Hon. Wm. J. Bryan
Mr. Bryan's letter
Letter from Professor Thompson
Letter from Dr. Hoadley
Visual radiogram to Colonel Henderson
Japanese message by radio
Aerial bombing of battleship
"Star" account of first radiovision
"
"Post account of first television
Dr. Geo. W. Burgess and Mr. Jenkins
Weather map complete
Weather map transmitter
Weather map receiver
Radio reports from U. S. S. Kittery
Federal Radio Commission in Jenkins Laboratory
Radiomovies broadcast station
Silhouette studio
Silhouette studies
Radiomovies transmitter
Radiomovies receiver
Television kit receiver
Commission
of
The Jenkins en
Mr. Jenkins
Education considers radiovision
route Richmond, Indiana, via plane
Mr. Thomsen radio officer
pilot,
Chronoteine Camera
Bobby Jones and Mr. Jenkins
Ludington line guests on initial trip
The lamp-bank
receiver
1894 news clipping in re television
Mr. Jenkins' laboratory staff
Visitors to the laboratory
A motion picture industry tribute
XV
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Ball in air stream
Pushed down
in air
stream
Captive ball in cup
Ball in 45 air stream
Square ball in air stream
Walter Johnson "curving" ball
Preparing card experiment
Blowing card off spool
Blowing across scale-pan
Pigeons in
flight
Cross-section eagle's wing
Langley tandem monoplane
Sections of airplane wing
The Santa Maria plane
Speed boat in action
Belt of grain conveyor
American Flag
Inventive genius
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Preface
America's supremacy in industrially applied science
often attributed to her patent system. It is the
belief of the writer, however, that individual liberty,
peace of mind, and freedom from political terrors
accounts to a greater extent for the fact that citizens
of the United States have made more revolutionary
inventions, and in a greater variety of fields, than
all the world else combined.
And these great inventions are born of the poor
as often as of the well-to-do, and much oftener than
of the rich. It is not believed, however, that the real
inventors, as distinguished from the "improver of
other people's inventions," are ever driven to their
efforts by a desire for great wealth, but rather, like
other artists, the musician, the painter, the sculptor,
the poet, by a love of creative effort. It's a hobby, a
is
plaything outside one's daily employment.
Of course it is also true that but very, very few of
those who have hobbies, and still fewer of all those
who work, ever make great inventions. Is it then an
accident? If not, is it possible to discover how these
few differ mentally from those about them?
It is possible that consideration of the subject
might lead to conclusions by which inventive talent
in youth could be discovered and segregated for
cultivation, or even special opportunity for develop
ment as musicians and other artists are found and
aided, and such a result would be as definitely an
addition to our public wealth as is the discovery of a
musical prodigy, or a great artist, or more properly a
new ore vein or coal body.
On
that
The
it
thought this would seem desirable, but
would work out successfully is not so certain.
first
great, revolutionary invention has always been
the work of a poor man and meager facilities. Only
its development into an immense industry has been
the work of paid workers and a great laboratory.
The great inventor is doubtless born with inventing
a natural gift, and, like the born artist, hardly de
serves unusual praise for any particular piece of
original work. Creation for each of them is too easy.
Each clearly pictures the new idea, and, copying
what he mentally
it
into a
visualizes,
form that others
he only labors to put
may enjoy.
It
is
recorded of
Angelo that, when discovered gazing intently at a
rejected scrap of marble, he said he saw an angel in
the stone, and immediately set about the release of
one of his masterpieces.
This almost uncanny ability to visualize the unfabricated creation permits the worker's
mind
to
run away ahead of his hands, and may account for
the recognized tendency of the artist to stop on his
all-but-finished painting and to set up a fresh canvas
for a new picture; and of the inventor to quit his
machine in what seems to the layman an incomplete
The explanation is that each has a mental
state.
picture of the thing completed, and therefore it has
no further attraction for him. His interest and his
limited funds go for something new, which will be
an addition to his store of knowledge, and a further
creative delight.
A
born gift for inventing seems to disclose itself in
childhood as an interest in new things, and accounts
for the quick perception of the physical principles
involved in each. Thus a store of specialized informa
tion is built up much more rapidly in such a mind than
in the unobserving. This is probably the explanation
of the mechanical cleverness differentiating between
persons otherwise equally equipped, and doubtless
accounts for the fact that the former quickly and
almost intuitively finds the solution to each new
problem.
Just how the natural inventor differs mentally from
the only destructively inquisitive boy may not be
definitely known, perhaps, but an intimate recital of
the boyhood activities of an individual case, typical
of his class, may be helpful in discovering this special
That is, by comparison it may be possible
what is the governing psychology, the visible
evidence of the truly inventive mind, and this must
talent.
to learn
be the excuse for the following recital of the activities
of a boy who later contributed to human advance
ment
in
many
fields of activity.
The Boyhood of an Inventor
This boy was
born in Ohio, on
the Stillwater,
at
his grandfather's
home of Welsh French paternal
;
ancestry,
and Wil
liam Penndescend-
antson
his
mother's side
.
His father was a
farmer and of
sturdy Quaker
stock and his
;
Paternal grandparents
mother a member
of the Whitewater Friends Meeting of Indiana.
They had met at the Friends Boarding School, now
Earlham College, during the stirring period of the
war.
After the wedding the young couple lived at the
old Ohio homestead for a time, continuing the farm
activities while planing the location of a future home.
civil
The
tal
old,
paren
homestead was
only a few miles
from the city, and
on the occasion of
a
there the
baby boy stood on
the rear seat of the
buggy, looking out
of the back, with
the mother holding
tight fast to the
A
little dress.
visit
passing
Maternal grandparents
newsboy,
mm
with
the fraternity of youth,
saluted the youngster; "Ho, ho,
red head, red as a brick."
So
that's our first distinguishing pic
ture of the youngster he was
redheaded.
The
boy's father always liked,
and had, the finest horses, even
from boyhood. It was one of these
horses that the young mother
drove on a certain occasion from
her father-in-law's home in Ohio
to her
diana,
own father's home
many of the long,
in
In
inter
vening miles being through the
thick woods of this, then, great
timbered region. This lonely way, which was scarcely
more than a blazed trail in those early pioneer days,
she traveled alone save only for her redheaded baby
boy. Now and then she passed a clearing, where a
settler had built his log cabin and enclosed his
cultivated patches with a worm fence to keep the
deer from eating his meager crops. It was opposite
one of these clearings on one such trip that her
horse became frightened by the sudden struggle of a
colt, which, tied to the fence, and getting tangled
in the straps had
thrown himself and
couldn't get up.
Parents in war-time
costume
The sudden, un
expected move
ment of the colt
in the corner of the
worm
fence so
frightened the
horse the mother
was driving that
the buggy was up
set. However, she
held to the reins,
An
Indiana pioneer's home
and the
horse, hearing her re
stood still, though
voice,
assuring
with
trembling
fright, until the
harness could be loosened and
the buggy righted by the kindly
people who had come quickly
from their dinner at the first
sound of trouble.
With the
horse rehitched, the mother with
her baby on her lap courageously
resumed her journey alone,
though the
part
A
way
settler offered to
with her
if
go
she wished.
long, long day's trail, years
later flown in twenty minutes by
this
boy grown
The red-headed boy
tall.
The baby's nurse was a negro man, an
and
ex-slave,
hand on the
edge of his wicker carriage, a dark, kindly hand of a
lighter shade of palm. Later, when the new family
moved from the Ohio homestead and set up a
his first
baby
domicile of their
recollection
own
in
is
of a
Indiana near the mother's
girlhood home, the
baby being then about
two years
colored
girl
this
old,
man and
a
the
along,
came
man
as a field hand
and the maid to do
housework.
siderable
A
con
amount
of
stock was also brought
over, including some
fine horses.
Here they establish
ed a home in a log
house, and here the
fertile fields were
cleared, hewn from a
virgin forest of the
An
Indiana forest
most wonderful and
varied collection of
industrially valuable
timber ever found
anywhere.
Majestic
oaks,
elms, beech,
maple, ash, hickory,
and walnut, walnut
now would al-
that
most "bring
its
weight in gold"; and
these great trees in
prodigal waste were
cut down, piled in
m
The
largest
walnut
tree
in Indiana
great pyramids and
burned to get rid of
them. Neighbors
came long distances to assist in these log-rollings,
and in turn to be assisted in their own forest-clearing
operations, coming on horseback, often with a girl
wife on behind.
It was in the hollow of one of those great walnut
trees, standing in the line fence, that "flat foot
Black Tom" hid the ham he had stolen out of the
smoke house. It was said of him that his feet were
so flat that "the hollow of his foot made a dent in the
ground," and that by
this means the stealing
of the ham was traced
to him, by men to
whom
tracking was al
most an instinctive gift.
The boy well remem
bers that old smoke
house where the meat
hung for curing, for
later, when he was big
enough, he put wood in
the fire pot in the middle
of the floor. He would
The sun-dial used
to tell
time as early as 500
B.C.
open the door, and, holding
throw
the smudge wood on the fire,
opening his eyes inside the
house only just wide enough
and often enough to insure
accuracy, and then dash out
his breath, rush in to
again.
It
was alongside the smoke
house that the lye vat was
located, a hopper-like affair
in which the wood ashes were
put, and upon which water
was poured to make lye for
the soap needed by the house
wife; perhaps the boy's first
William Cullen Bryant, Quaker poet
It certainly would loosen the
lesson in chemistry.
dirt, would that old soft soap, but how it did sting
when it touched scratches in one's hands.
The woods teemed with game, many specimens of
which are gone forever. Wild pigeons, for which the
government now offers $1,000 for a single pair, then
abounded in such numbers that they often broke
down the great branches of the trees in which they
The boy also remembers many occasions
roosted.
when he ran out of the house at the noise of an awe
some honking, to watch the wild geese flying over,
darkening the sky with their numbers.
All crops grew
abundantly in this vir
gin loam, and the farm
prospered, in time
coming to be a re
nowned show
place,
always well equipped
and well stocked with
cattle, sheep, hogs, big
draft animals, and fine
driving horses.
It is evident that
Tallow candles for
light
*
the father was
proud
young
of his
son,
for
when he drove
four
the
big
horses, hitched
two abreast, to
A
**
**
If
the heavy wheat
reaper, riding the
"
1
T1O Q T*
TdJ)Bi
SiJ~TCllCC
\X7il P*PM
MOT'Wf-*
and driving the leader with a
single "gee-haw jerk
fellow with him, riding
astride the off horse. He was so wee that he had to
reach away forward to hold to the hames, which
stretch drew back the sleeves of his calico dress, ex
posing his little arms to the blistering heat of a
line",
he took the
merciless sun.
little
But the burn disappeared under the
application of poultices of wet baking
his mother applied, a "first-aid" lesson.
soda which
This farm was near the mother's girlhood home,
and
so
it
was at grandfather's that
his
mother
left
him while she went to a nearby country church, on
the occasion when he stole away, in his little dress
and sunbonnet, over the fences and across the fields
to the meeting house, before the open door of which he
stood calling "Ma, oh, Ma." Of course, she knew her
baby's voice, and came at once to prevent further dis
turbance, and
sat in the car
riage with him
until meeting
was out.
This meet
ing house was
one of the depots of the
5
If
-^
underground
*
railwayof
slavery days
when those
i
*" r
-
*;
1111
New
Garden Quaker meeting house
who did not believe
human bondage
in
assisted runaway
slaves northward to
Canada and freedom.
Among men
notable
work in this
section was Levi
in this
Coffin of hallowed
fame.
In the boy's mem
ory this old church
is
associated in
A
Wilson seicing machine of 1848
some
unaccountable way with his earliest recollection of
his mother's first sewing machine, although just why
is not clear, for the machine was a gift from the boy's
father to his mother not very long after they moved
to Indiana.
But the boy dearly loved to turn the
wheel of thai sewing machine and puzzle out the
behavior of the needle and thread.
The boy's home was a happy one, and he never
heard a cross word pass between father and mother.
But home is the place of familiar things, the everyday
things with which one grows up, while interest for
the youthful mind lies afield, with the unfamiliar
As grandfather's place had the many strange
and homely devices which were associated with the
things.
pioneer settler's
a
conquest of
new
it
land,
is
little wonder
that many of the
boy's childhood
recollections are
associated with
the old "gran'-
ther" home
stead,
and
its
many simple but
effective
Wheat
cut with sickle
from
earliest times
tools,
applications of the
lever, the screw,
the wedge, and
the hammer.
So it was from
grandfather the
boy learned the
tricks those early
pioneers had
practiced in set
ting up a home in
Threshing wheat with a flail
the wilderness.
It
whom
was grand
he watched drilling holes in great
which
must be cracked into smaller pieces
boulders,
when they were to be moved. And it was grandfather
who let the little fellow in dress and sunbonnet pour
water from a gourd onto the soft wooden plugs
driven into the holes, water which was poured on with
timid expectancy until the swelling plug split the
great rock with a resounding report.
In this way the boy learned that capillary at
father
traction
is
the greatest force in nature, the force
which carries sap to the top of the tallest tree; the
force which enables the tender shoot of the pea vine to
split the hardest earth crust; and which swelled the
soft
wooden plugs
until the big rock
was rent assunder.
Perhaps these
tricks
had been
taught the grand
father by the boy's
great-grandfather,
one of the
back fields stood
for in
the original log
cabin this pioneer
settler
had
built in
the wilderness, at
Grandfather clocks were invented in 1867
first
miles
many, many
from the near
est neighbor.
The boy will
forget
the
never
occasion
when his aunt walked
with him across the
field to this old log
house, nor the elation
of discovery when up
under the roof were
A "Cape-Cod"
lantern, a tallow candle in a perforated
tin case
found some pewter
spoons, a powder horn, a dip-wick candle lantern, and
a great old clock made wholly of wood, including the
toothed wheels of the gear train.
Surely this was a veritable treasure-house of in
terest, and this same boy more than once in later
years has pictured to himself the setting in that hum
ble home, musing on a typical fireside scene of that
long ago, as he himself sits by a modern electric
light on the library table.
Remembering so distinctly the old log cabin, it
doesn't take such a vivid imagination to picture the
young mother tracing out the alaphabet with a sharp
stick in the fine wood ashes on the hearth, as her
little chick with an elbow on her knee, watched with
sparkling eyes the changing tracery of each letter
and
figure
as
he
A B Cs.
And how this
learned his
"chick" grew to
measur
and his
brawn against op
manhood,
ing his wits
posing elements as
he widened his in
fluence in the sur
rounding forest,
noting the addition
al settlers, with greA
flax carder
garious instinct sat
ultimately to
take a bride of his
own, set up a home,
a school, a church,
and a graveyard,
and that this girl
bride was the boy's
isfied,
grandmother.
Recalling with
quickening pulse,
these wonderful
Priscilla at the spinning wheel
times were so near, that the boy, as he stood in the
attic years agone, could stretch out his hand and
touch the evidence all about him; the old spinning
wheel, the flax break, the wool carder, the swinging
beam loom, the cheese hoops, the flail, the sickle,
He could almost hear the noise of them, as he puzzled
out their use, standing there under the rafters, and
in imagination peopling the place with living forms.
Even at this late day it is a study of more than
passing interest to note how completely self-reliant
were those early settlers of this great wilderness.
Each went
in alone,
master
circumstances, and
lived completely and abun
dantly, not by leeching off
others, but by adeptly turn
ing to his own use and mainof
all
tenance the abundant
of a generous earth,
the
his for
taking.
Each member of these
early settlements had the
wealth of all the great forest
about him, a wealth far be
yond his needs. And so he
bounty
required
little
money.
his grist on
to the mill, got
took
He
horseback
it ground
The
10
old water-wheel grist mill
into flour, the mill
er taking his toll of
the
grist.
The
neighbors among
themselves traded
provisions, or
swapped
horses, or
a horse for a cow,
a pig for a sheep.
Money was almost
useless.
The cradle was used for centuries for harvesting wheat
As the settle
ment became more populous
stores
were
set
up and
the farmer's wives exchanged butter and eggs for
calico
and ginghams.
Money was
still
but
little
needed.
As population increased still more, work became
more largely specialized, each man devoting himself
to a greater and greater extent to some particular
division of the needs of the community.
For that
reason the use of
money
as a
medium
of
exchange
became a convenience, ultimately a necessity.
As this specialization
became more and more
marked, the specialist him
self became more depend
ent upon others for food,
clothing and shelter, until
without knowing it he had
become a helpless unit of
that community activity
we
call civilization.
How
many of us could find food
to sustain life if suddenly
deprived of our neighbor
hood groceryman?
He was
both blacksmith
and wheelwright
11
But to look from
the helpless depend
ence on group-ac
tivity of the man of
today, to the com
pletely self-sustain
ing citizen of that
early yesterday,
leads only to an ad
miring contempla
The crane and food- pot of long ago
tion of the grit of
the sturdy pioneer.
With his new bride, a yoke of oxen, a rifle, an ax, a
skillet, and a Bible he trekked away into that virgin
forest for days, finally to establish himself on the
of some welcoming stream. Here he set up an
and here he raised a brood; fed them, clothed
them, and reared them, in the fear of God, the love
of nature, and a kinship with the wild life about
them; instilling in them a love of liberty and of
fellowman which can be attained in no other way
to the same degree.
One may muse for hours upon the scene; the
family sitting about the great fireplace in the hand
bank
altar
made
in her
in
straight-backed hickory chairs, as "gramma"
white cap and apron stirs the savory mixture
the big iron
pot hanging on
the crane and
;
ever
and anon
lifts the lid of
the skillet, stand
ing three-legged
in the coals on
the hearth, to
note the state of
the baking cornpone, being care-
The
old "living
12
room"
at
Mi. Vernon, Washington's
Home
f
u
1
not to
drop the coals
off the lid,
coals put there
to make the
tasty brown
top crust.
Then
was the
there
deli-
cious maple
syrup and
maple sugar.
But delicious
Gathering maple-sap for sugar and syrup
was, the
most fun was
in the gathering of the sap.
Grandfather would go
about through the woods boring holes with an augur
in the trunk of the beautiful maple trees, drive therein
a spile made of an elderberry stalk, and set a gourd or
a crock to catch the dripping sap, returning next day
with bobsled and sapyoke to gather the sweet fluid
and boil it down to the right consistency.
It is unimportant whether the grandfather was a
gifted handyman and an originator, or only a copyist,
or perhaps something of both, but among the many
things the grandfather made the boy found much
to add to his mental store, and of value in after
years, as he studied the weighted-log-lever press
with which the grand
mother made cheeses
the sturdy cradle in
which, with a foot on
the rocker, she put
the babies to sleep
while knitting socks,
as
it
;
and the spinning
ill
Spinning thread for
table linen
13
wheel, and the loom
used in the making
of the family raiment,
an( l l'h<* beautiful
table
napery
linen;
of
and how
grandfather raised
the woodhouse by
the simple expedient
of
wedges
driving
thereunder at
many
points around
foundation.
the
Grandfather
did
the
The old quill pens
writing for
the family; and it
was an occasion of moment when he reached up on
the high mantle and took down the inkwell and the
all
goose-quill pens, proceeding with dignified unhaste
to set pen to paper, as did the signers of the Declara
tion of Independence when they, with quill in hand,
sat down in turn before that great paper.
Then there were the wonderful stories, listened to
with bated breath, of hunting exploits, and trade
with the Indians. It was on his grandfather's knee the
little fellow heard the story of the visit of the 'braves"
'
during an Indian uprising.
It seems that word had been passed by courier
that the Indians were on the warpath. Thereupon,
the settlers, leaving their homes, hastened with their
families to the stockade which had been built at a
trading post
some ten miles
away. But the
greatgrand
father refused
to go, and putling his trust
in the God of
his Quaker an-
BK^M
cestors, he
went about
accustom
ed tasks, the
his
The advance guard of
14
civilization
I
good wife in her
plain apparel
and white cap
doing her house
work
as usual.
One after
noon flitting
forms were ob
served behind
some dis
trees
tance from the
cabin, a confir
Years later the boy was to meet a Quaker President
mation of the
United States
rumor that the
Indians were near.
That evening the door was
thrust
from
without, and a moment
roughly
open
later, in stalked two half naked savages in ominous
paint and feathers. One was a familiar face but the
other a stranger. They found the pioneer reading the
Bible aloud in front of the great fireplace, while the
wife knit. Glancing quickly about the room one of
the redmen tapped the settler on the shoulder and
pointed to the empty gun rack, the two forked tree
branches nailed above the
door.
Thereupon the man
left his place at the fire and
leading his forbidding visitors
some distance from the cabin
stooped down and drew the
After
rifle from a hollow log.
ascertaining that the gun was
not loaded the Indians with
drew and joined their com
rades for a pow-wow, the set
tler returning to his cabin.
No hostile act followed, and
no further visit was made by
the warriors, though many
weeks later the gun was re
turned to its rest above the door.
In war paint and feathers
15
of the
And always at the conclu
sion of this story the fascinated
listener on the narrator's knee
would insist on again examining
identical firearm, a gun
which had passed from father
this
to son, a long-barreled, muzzle-
Buckskin
suit
and
flintlock
pioneer
gun of
the
loading flint-lock rifle, with
silver-mounted walnut stock,
having a little door in one side
for tne l inen patches in which
the leaden bullet lay as, in load
ing, it was pushed home, against
the charge of powder, with the long, slender hickory
ramrod, a type of weapon made famous in many a
story of Daniel Boone's skill therewith. And then
the powder horn must be examined with its wonder
ful nozzle which would measure the powder charge;
and the buckskin bag in which the round bullets
were carried.
Few of those who visit museums where such rifles
are historically preserved ever get the quickened
pulse such magic recollections excite under the thin
ning locks crowding the head of that boy of yester
year.
Nor is this the only tale which a sight
weapon recalls, for there was the
old
deer
And
at a single
of
the time
again
killed
shot,
of this quaint
story of two
accidentally placed.
the hunter awoke with
a presentiment of fear
as he lay stretched
Indiana Deer
16
out in the warm sun
on a log in the woods,
awakening just in time
to roll off and avoid
the sharp claws of a
wildcat springing at
him from a tree branch
overhead.
It is more than prob
able that many such
Wildcat or "bobcat"
stories were revived in
the grandfather's mind
by the visit of an Indian to the new home across the
road from the old pioneer cabin, long years after the
Indians had gone from that region. At any rate the
-
boy got from this visitor his first right mental picture
of an Indian in war trappings, with bows and arrows,
tomahawk and peacepipe. During the evening the
Indian chanted songs, weird music indeed, though
its purport had to be interpreted for the benefit of
those present, the interpreter explaining that he sang
of battle and of conquest.
It was quite appropriate, therefore, that grand
father
should whittle the
used
to bind the little
splints
fellow's
broken arm when he
fell
over the great log
the
wood
sill
in
house. It couldn't
have been a very big or very
long forearm, judging from
an inspection of these splints
today, splints little more than
an inch wide and four inches
long.
Perhaps he cried as he
sat on grandfather's knee
'
*
"Now
.
I lay
me down
|
to
i
sleep"
17
while the kindly
old country doctor
pulled the bone in
to place, the little
patient watching
the operation with
a sort of terrified
fascination.
be, after all, he
didn't cry, for his
May
dear mother went
aside to pray that it
might not hurt her
young physician
son, prayed to the God who answered prayers.
Doubtless the little chap with the broken arm
was for a time the pampered ruler of the household,
with everyone waiting on him. Even dear grand
mother in her white cap and apron lead the way
down the cool, stone steps into the spring house,
where the cookies were kept. Oh, but that was a
wonderful place, that underground treasure house
with its cold walls and rough paved floor between
the stone flags of which the icy water flowed from
the welling spring in the corner. On the stones of
the floor of this magic place sat earthenware crocks
of milk covered with thick, rich cream.
And on
little
other
crocks full of
golden butter marked
with "dimples" made with a
stones
rolls of
notched and wetted stick.
But the great attraction was
under the glazed lid of the
crock on the stone shelf where
the delicious cookies were
kept, cookies sweetened with
maple sugar, shining with a
film of butter,
and sprinkled
over with the most delicious
Fairies in ike candle flame
18
Shucks, the
city boy with his
boughten cakes has
never had anything
to compare with it.
spices.
But "gramma's"
home did not hold
the only tasty attrac
tion for the boy. His
A
own mother would
barnyard dinner
sit of an evening by
the great fireplace, while the snow swirled in eddies
outside, and with her little sons on low stools on
either side of her, as she scraped apples which in turn
the youngsters licked off the end of her knife. Or
the luscious whole apples baked on the hearth,
turned a bit every few minutes to brown on every
side, but which when done must be handled care
fully for they are hot and will burn little fingers.
And perhaps to be followed by a feast of popcorn
which joyously danced in the popper shaken over a
great bed of live coals in the fireplace.
And then there were the evenings with the hickory
nuts, when with a sadiron upside down on the knees,
and a hammer, the nuts were cracked and thrown in
the basin, to be freed of their delicious kernels with
darning needles.
The gathering
of the nuts was
also
of
an occasion
merriment,
for to go nutting
was looked for
ward to with de
light.
So,
im
mediately after
Home
is
where the heart is"
19
the
first
frost,
with buckets
and baskets
in
hand, the great
shell bark hick
ory trees were
visited
and the
nu ts searched for
in the dried
grass. When
these were all
"A
sower went forth
to
sow"
picked
up,
the
boys would
shoulder a log, and running swiftly would bump the
end of the log against the tree trunk, at the same time
jumping safely out from under the rebounding log. At
the impact a shiver would travel up the tree and along
the branches to the farthest tip of the longest limb,
and down would come the nuts, the girls running up
to the body of the tree to avoid the nutty shower.
The entrance to the woodshed was the favorite
place to hull the walnuts, mashing them with a club
and then picking the nuts out of the green hulls. Of
course the fingers were stained, but who cares, it will
come off when it wears off.
Above the space between the kitchen porch and
the woodshed a great grapevine trellis stood, and
on
a
box
the boy
could easily
gather and
eat all the
grapes he
wanted,
delicious
blue-ripe
Concords,
and Brigho n s and
t
Niagaras.
"Making hay
20
while the sun shines"
Nor
will the boy ever
the
old-fashioned
forget
at
grandma's with
garden
its
vari-colored hollyhocks
and stately sunflowers,
and the pebble-bordered
flowerbeds each side of
the gravel walk up to the
great front porch of that
welcome-fashioned
home
;
flowerbeds of marigolds,
mignonette, lavender and
zinnias, with a tracery of
maidenhair fern at the
back. What sweet odors
greeted the visiting crin
Hollyhocks
oline maiden of that long
ago as she tripped up to
the great front door, and with dainty fingers in long
black knitted silk mits lifted the heavy brass knocker.
Invention was this boy's natural gift, doubtless,
for at an early age he showed a keen appreciation of
the right use of tools, and while still in dresses he
sawed a hole in the barnyard fence because the gate
kad been fastened to keep
Mmi
him out. Dropping the saw
he crawled through the hole,
"
^^m
fflft
It, ^r
Cm^
*V#
y*
\4
"^|
**
-^M
^jjjjj?
knocking off his bonnet in
doing so, to visit with the
horses and cows and other
barnyard folks, fearless of
e danger of being trampled.
^
The abandoned saw and sunbonnet told the story of the
youngster's victory over ob
stacles, and the trail by which
he was located.
On another occasion he was
found working the handle of
There were artists in those days
(a
the big, old wooden pump,
wood engraving)
21
just
about
all
he could do,
and when a small stream
ran out of the great spout,
he let go of the handle and
hurriedly looked up the
spout, before the trickling
stream should stop, to try
to discover where the water
came from.
That
inquisitive streak
youngster was the
cause of embarrassment on
the occasion of a visit to
the father's boyhood home,
in Ohio, for being curious
The old wooden pump
to know what the mechan
ical contraption was, in sight, but just out of reach
on a stringer running across the open front of the
woodshed, he got the sawbuck and on this unsteady
coign could, by standing on tiptoe, just touch the
in the
object of his curiosity.
But
alas, in this insecure
position, with hands caught over the sill, the sawbuck turned over leaving him hanging in midair.
Fortunately he had a grandmother within earshot,
and she, hearing a lusty appeal, came running and
helped him
down from
his
^
perilous position, with no
harm
done.
What
to
on
little
things lead
indelible impressions
the child brain, when
more
important
are forgotten!
The
things
father
with his little son had
driven over in a buggy
to the old
homestead
in
Ohio. One day was spent
at a nearby city.
They
Coal
oil
lamps came with the discovery of
oil by Col. Drake in 1859
natural
22
returned after night
by a different
road, a road which
fall
intersected the
morning road near
the relative's home.
Returning, the
horse jogged along
leisurely until near
the intersection
when he quickened
his pace. This was
remarked, but
Steel needles first
made
in 1575
how
did the horse, strange to this territory, know he ap
proached the road leading to feed, and rest and
shelter? The boy never forgot the incident, and all
through life watched with interest for evidence of this
gift in other animals.
And again, next morning he was genuinely sur
prised to discover that a glass marble, given him by
his host, would bounce astonishingly on the granite
steps of the house, though it was many a year later
when he learned that glass is just about the most
perfectly elastic substance known. It is doubtless in
this very way that the mind accumulates its most
lasting information, i.e., by discovering unexpected
phenomena, for the boy was thinking on the subject
all
the
The
way back home.
home was about
boy's
ten miles from the city
and thither he went with
his parents, and in his first
short pants, to meet some
friends coming on the train.
Mrs. Howe invents first sewing machine in 1846
23
The
puffing loco
motive was pon
derous and inspir
ing,
and the
hiss
ing steam, music
to the youngster's
ears.
It
wasn't
strange, therefore,
that he should find
more attraction up
An
early B.
&
front than in
watching the folks
0. Railway locomotive
descending from
the cars. When he was missed there was considerable
excitement, but the mother, knowing her boy as only
mothers do, sought and found him by the great black
monster, the rods and wheels of which were being
reverently surveyed by a worshiper whose red head
scarcely reached above the cylinders.
As has been explained, the grandfather's place
was a storehouse of interest to an inquisitive,
small boy. On a certain expedition of discovery, an
old, thick gold watch, of the "turnip" type was found.
The boy was immediately seized with a burning
desire to see the inside of it, of course.
Looking
about for something with which to open the watch
a hatchet was the
first thing found.
It
proved to be an
entirely effective
tool.
Grown-ups
don't seem to ap-
preciate how
quickly a boy can
open a big gold
watch with a hatch
et, and how all the
shiny wheels then
readily come
tumbling out. But
The Capital Limited 's crack locomotive
24
a painful reckoning
followed,
as
it
was
patiently explained to
the young Columbus
that the watch was
not worth much as a
timepiece after such
heroic treatment. Not
only was he properly
punished therefor, but
he had to tell grand
father he was sorry,
Fan-mill for cleaning grain
and pay him the twenty -three cents
in the little
iron bank.
There was a "fan -mill" on the barn floor, a machine
having vibrating screens, a hopper above, and a
plurality of wooden paddles, very much resembling
the propeller of an old stern-wheel Mississippi
steamboat. These wooden fan paddles were given
a relatively rapid rotation, by a crank and multiply
ing gears, to blow the chaff out of the wheat. Of
course, the boys learned that by giving the mill a
start it would run alone so long that straight wheatstraws could be run through between the teeth of
the gears, coming out mashed flat and crinkled in a
most interesting fashion. There was no guard over
the gears, and so on
a certain memorable
occasion little fingers
went too close to the
gears and were caught
between, leaving a mu
tilation
which was car
ried through
"Ask for
it"
25
life.
As a playmate the boys
had a collie dog, a knowing
animal that played hide-
and-seek with them,
though it is probable the
dog followed the scent
rather than his reasoning
in finding them, a trail
which sometimes led up a
ladder into the haymow.
In the evening the boy
w ould go with the dog to
bring the cows, though
as a matter of fact the boy
only went as far as the
r
The brothers
barnyard gate-post, upon
which he sat and waited for the dog to go into the
pasture and single out the milk cows and bring them
up, for the collie knew which of the cattle were
wanted, and which were to be left in the field.
Then there was the time when the excited mother
dog led the boys to her retreat and proudly showed
them her
and then
little family, looking first at the puppies
into the faces of the boys, as she wagged
her tail in welcome, a puppy family as much there
The
after belonging to the boys as to the collie.
little
of
a
wet
the
will
sensation
never
boy
forget
nose exploring under his chin as he held an armful
of these wiggly little creatures, and vainly tried to
keep his chin so high
the puppy could not
reach.
Another of the boy
hood
recollections
is
Frank, his father's
Just a basket of puppies
26
favorite lead
horse, a horse
locally rather
widely
nowned
re
for his
intelligence,
and always
driven with a
4
'jerk" line even
in
ten-horse
A
"Gee-haw" jerkline team
teams. Old
Frank came to make quite a name for himself,
He would work closer in difficult places than any
other horse thereabouts.
In hauling out of the
logs he often
woods a wagon heavily loaded with
passed so near trees that his bridle would touch,
and yet would keep pulling his utmost under the
direction of a driver in whom he had confidence.
But the feat which doubtless got him the greatest
was pumping water. He would take the
pump handle in his teeth and work it up and down
to pump water for himself when the drinking trough
was empty.
On more than one occasion the attention of visit
ing neighbors was called to the horse's pumping
"stunt," and more or less frequently a new pump
publicity
handle had to be provided as the horse's teeth wore
the handle in two.
The
father
had
always loved horses
from early
man
hood, and so came
to be a locally noted
Black Beauty
27
horseman.
Colts just grew up
under his hand already trained
to willing obedience. They never
needed to be "broke."
Horses
understood him and did what he
wished. Strange horses, even vi
cious fighters, when he acquired
them, soon came to love and
follow
him
For
about.
many
years he stood ready to buy bad
horses at bargain prices.
These
horses he worked in teams of from
two to twenty, and
later
would
drive each of them, single, through
the nearby village with the driving
reins lying across the horse's back,
and guided only by spoken direc
Arm load of "kitnas"
tion.
On occasions he sold the
horse back to the original owner,
though the horse sometimes thereafter again be
came master.
And old Frank was of great assistance in the
"breaking" of these bad horses, for with Frank in
the lead of a six -horse team and the bad horse at
the off wheel, he had little chance to misbehave, and
very soon learned to do as he
was told, and willingly. There
was one such horse, however, which
gave unusual trouble.
This one
would lay down and refuse to get
up. It was then the boy's duty to
smother the horse to make him
get on his feet again. So gripping
the horse's muzzle to shut off his
air,
(for
a horse can breath only
The boy in Sunday
28
clothes
through his nose) he
would soon begin to
struggle to shake off the
boy's grip, but failing
in this would suddenly
come to his feet with a
lunge, and it behooved
the boy to be on his
guard to avoid being
struck by the horse's
hoofs, for a horse gets
Did you
ever ride in
an
old
fore quarters first,
gets up front part last).
Incidentally, how
many city folks know that a cow has no upper front
teeth, though a horse has.
Some of those early Indiana winters were winters
of big snows. It was on the occasion of one of these
up
(a
cow
deep snows that the boy caught a rabbit without
weapons. His parents had bought him a pair of
rubber boots, and a pair of real gloves, with fingers.
(He had theretofore had only mittens made by
Of course, with such an outfit he must
mother.)
get out in the snow. As he floundered about joy
ously in the big drifts he came upon a rabbit im
prisoned where he had
stopped when the snow
began to fall. About all
the boy had to do was
reach down and pick him
up, but he was proud of
his feat just the same.
Holding the rabbit by
the hind legs the boy
cracked him in the back
of the neck with the edge
of his hand, the approved
Snowtime
29
method
rabbits out
commission, and then pro
ceeded to the house to show
mother, and to watch her dress
and cook him.
of putting
of
But
as the
boy grew his range
and
widened,
presently he was
the proud possessor of a pony,
doubtless selected by his father
Cottontail rabbit
for its quiet and gentle disposi
tion. The pony must have made
slow progress forward, most of his motion being up
and down, if the description that grandfather made
was true when he said that the pony "could gallop
all day under the shade of an oak."
But ownership meant responsibility and expense,
and expense meant money and money meant work.
So pawpaws were gathered in the thicket and sent
to the city. No wage was ever so eagerly anticipated,
or realization more appreciated, than when the
father, returning, gave the boy a "shinplaster," a
twenty-five cent piece of paper money received from
the sale of the fruit.
Oh, the memory of a ripe pawpaw, that smoothskinned, yellow, delicious, hunk of messiness, next
to the bean-shaped seeds of
which the most lusciousness
could be found. Because of the
verv few hours interval between
Aircastles
30
maturity and decay,
few city dwellers ever
get a taste of this su
relative
perior
the
of
banana.
One of the boy's first
inventions was a bean
huller.
He
built
it
in
the attic of the old log
house, his early home,
used later as a tool
house when the new
house was
built.
Mr.
Scott invents first
machine for recording
speech 1866
Proudly he led
his father
up
into
the loft to see this wonderful machine, which, turned
with a crank, was supposed to break the bean hulls
open as the "beater" passed the mouth of the hop
What was the boy's disappointment when his
per.
father, perhaps with just a suggestion of contempt,
remarked, after watching it perform, "Why, I could
thrust a whole handfull of beans through untouched
between the revolutions of the beater." Thereupon
the bean huller lost all interest for one small boy,
and he probably made it over into a sled or a wagon.
But not all his early inventions lacked apprecia
tion.
Making a jack to raise the wagon wheels, in
order that the axles might be greased, he hit upon a
very
effective
design,
apparently,
for neighbors
seeing it per
suaded him to
make
jacks for
them.
If neighbors
liked these jacks
so should others,
An
old Daguerreotype
31
he reasoned, and with vis
ions of wealth in building
wagon jacks, the boy and
his brother, pooling their
capital, made up five jacks
First telegraph Professor
would not
Morse 1837
and drove to the city to
sell them.
Three of them
had been painted a bright
red, and these were quickly
sold. The other two,
though in every way as
good and as serviceable
So the boys learned a basic truth,
i.e., buyers mostly judge value by looks alone, which
was one of the first of the young merchandiser's
sell.
lessons, applied profitably in after years.
Somewhat later he invented a machine for making
slat-and-wire fencing in place on the posts in the
field. It consisted of a short, flat stick, notched in the
middle on opposite edges, with which the wire was
twisted between the slats.
It was very effective,
and made a good fence. These devices he also made
for the neighbor-farmers. A little later a manufactur
ing concern in a nearby city marketed an improved
form of this same fence machine, which meantime
had lost interest for the boy, because it was no longer
an unsolved problem.
But added years
brought greater respon
sibilities and more need
for
money.
The
city
A
32
young train dispatcher
similarly confronted,
papers; the country
boy traps fur-bearing ani
mals, perhaps muskrats, for
their skins. And the coun
try boy has the best of it
too, for there is the hunter's
instinct gratified, the ad
venture of setting the traps
just under the water about
the banks of the pond, and
boy,
sells
Ben. Franklin printing press of 1732
subsequent visits of inspection and reward. And
then the gathering of suitable forked switches upon
which to stretch the turned skins to dry.
But the skin season passes, and the snows are gone
and the time soon comes for bare feet, raggedy straw
hat, calico shirt, and pants with one gallus, the great
est combination of convenience ever invented, for
by the time the boy reached the creek on the run,
every piece had been removed and into the swimming
hole he goes, without stopping, ahead of his fellows
if
possible.
Round the clock the weeks speed until again school
time comes with its three-mile walk each way daily
in all kinds of weather, and the more or less frequent
encounters with the bully who pulled the little girl's
and knocked the
crutches from under
the cripple. Of course
a red-headed boy
couldn't see that with
out mixing in, never
hair
stopping to think of the
beating sure to follow
from tackling too big a
job.
But school had its
attractions for the fu
ture inventor as well,
Old swimmin' hole
33
for in a glass case
over in the corner
was the air pump
and the electric
machine, and the
sparking tubes,
and all other upThe
oldest
to-the-minute
known hammer
scientific
appara
very complete,
no doubt, for the time, though perhaps beyond most
of the district school teachers, who probably knew
little more about scientific apparatus than the pupils
did. And it was a great day for the red-headed boy
when the school trustees decided the little-used
apparatus might just as well be given to him as
"he seemed to be the only one liking it."
tus,
Perhaps the boy's mother came to doubt the
of accepting such a gift, for while sulphuric
acid on zinc would make hydrogen gas, and hydrogen
gas would make paper bags rise high in the air,
sulphuric acid spilled on clothes and carpets made
holes, results which the mother saw to it ended
the boy's immediate interest in chemistry. There
wisdom
after the electric devices
must
bors,
suffice.
So neigh
visiting
the
boy's
home, eagerly consented
to "join hands" and take
the shock of a discharg
ing Lyden jar, or watch
the scintillating sparks in
a vacuum tube.
Incidentally,
it
might
be recorded that the forms
of entertainment which
obtained in evening gath
erings of country young
people consisted more of
This
34
hammer
strikes
a 3-ton blow
feats
skill,
of mental
cleverness
and quickness of
perception than
dancing, the
being re
served for the less
of
latter
frequent "world
ly" occasions,
graced with the
stately
"Virginia
reel," the beautiEarly
fully gliding
waltz, and the
static
machine
like.
Charades and other guessing contests were com
mon, as well as displays of unusual natural phenom
ena.
It was at such delightful gatherings that the
boy learned that one cannot blow a card away from
the end of a spool by blowing through the hole; that
a bent pin can easily be straightened if thrown on the
bare floor and rolled under the shoe; that one can
not touch the two hands together (if one hand
touches the elbow); that an egg laid on the floor
cannot be crushed with a bushel basket (if put in
That a brim-full glass of
water, with a card
the corner of the room).
covering the top, may
be held inverted with
out the water falling
out that a boy can be
comfortably seated
on the floor, but with
legs crossed in such a
way that he can't
;
possibly get up; that
a horse's head is as
long as a barrel is
deep; that a child two
The sewing
bee
35
years old
tall
full
is just half as
as he will be when
grown.
And perhaps such
mental exercises largely
account for the cleverness,
self-reliance and self-suf
ficiency of the country
boy and girl, so many of
whom have risen to places
of great responsibility in
industry, and of power in
government; why a railsplitter becomes Presi
dent of the United States,
Lincoln, the rail-splitter
for example.
The older young men had their sources of amuse
ment as well; jumping, running, wrestling, pitching
Life wasn't all just hard work; and
were
to
quick
they
grasp the comedy of a situation.
On a certain occasion one of the young men em
ployed on the farm rode an ox to an evening gather
ing at the school house, a sort of lyceum, perhaps.
horseshoes, etc.
After the session adjourned, the young man mounted
his steed for home. But as he chatted with his
friends before setting
chap slipped up,
gave the steer's
tail a twist which
off,
some
mischievous
sent him down
the road at a fu
rious pace.
As
the young
man
Oxen "treading out
36
the
corn"
rode bareback and guided the
run-away ox only by "geehaw" command, he had a
precarious seat, to the great
amusement
of
it's
his
friends;
fair to
though,
only
say
that he stayed aboard until
the steer reached home.
The boy has heard his
father recount an amusing
story of his ex-slave nurse.
It appears that he liked to
tease a ram that ran with
the flock.
He would get
down on hands and knees
A President pitches horseshoes
and bleat defiantly at the
ram, which soon so enraged him that he'd come tear
Just as the ram doubled up his
ing at the man.
knees and launched his weight, the man would duck
his head and the ram would harmlessly shoot entirely
over him. But once, as the man ducked his head,
a stubble jabbed him in the nose, and he didn't go
low enough, with the result that the ram hit the
colored man in the head a resounding crack, however,
without serious harm, but to the hilarious amuse
ment
of the spectators.
Such was the
order of the play
of the grown-ups
of that forma
tive settlement
period, in which
feats of strength
in friendly con
test most often
predominated
and in which
surprises
some
times developed
A
blooded
ram
37
,
as for example,
it
when
was demonstrated
to the doubtful that
the strongest of the
strong could not
lift
own weight
off
his
the
ground if the
weight must be lifted
by pulling on a rope
Making
her
own
passing over a pulley
with the other end of
the rope fastened to
clothes
the weight.
For the social gatherings of the women folk there
were the quilting parties, when from miles around,
they gathered for a day of visiting and quilting, with
fingers incessantly busy; stopping only for a dinner
of good things, which rarely failed to include delicious
pumpkin
pie.
Applebutter making
visiting
when
was
also
the neighbor's wives
an
occasion
came
over,
for
and
peeled and pared apples, and cooked them, with con
stant stirring with the long-handled wooden stirrer,
in the great copper kettle hanging over the out-ofdoors fire.
But winter in Indiana
and
country had
means snow and
while that
few
flat
sleds,
a short coasting
place could most always be
Then came the
found.
hills,
glorious afternoon when
he took the two little sweet
hearts coasting on a red
bobsled.
Down
the slope
toward the road the sled
flew, but when only half
way down a heavy wagon
was seen crossing the path.
Applebutter time
38
There was no way to go around
the wagon, and he couldn't stop,
so shouting over his shoulder
to the two little pig-tail passen
gers "I guess I'll have to dump
you," the young engineer gave
one of the guide ropes a hard
passengers, pilot and sled
over and over in the
snow in perfect safety, and the
driver of the heavy wagon con
pull,
all rolling
tinuing on his unconcerned way
unconscious of the averted
David Copperfield and his mother
all
catastrophe.
Perhaps the boy came by his talent through
heredity, for while the father was not inventively
gifted, the father's brother was, and during a visit
to the homestead, the uncle made for the little fellow
a windmill which was nailed to the ridge-pole of the
woodhouse. It was held head into the wind with a
feather, and a remark by some elder person that
"like Job's turkey, it had but one feather in its tail"
stuck in the boy's memory.
It was this uncle that brought the boy a little
steam engine which he had made when himself a
youngster.
There was, however, no steam gener
ator.
So the boy imme
diately set about making
one. This he did by fitting
the ends of a joint of stove
pipe with two wooden discs.
Filling this makeshift steam
boiler with water he set it
upright in a pile of ashes
(to prevent burning out
the lower wooden disc) and
connected the top to his
steam engine. Around
this
improvised boiler he
Peter Cooper locomotive used by B.
way in 1829
&
0. Rail
39
fire.
After an ex
pectant wait steam began to
flow and presently the en
built a
gine was turning over, go
ing faster and faster to
the young boiler-maker's
increasing delight, until
the head of the boiler blew
out with a report that brought everybody from the
dinner table.
The country boy is surrounded by a wealth of raw
material from which he may fashion, if he is clever,
more toys than can be found in the toy shop of any
He can cut from a green willow switch a short
city.
section, and by beating on it with his knife handle,
the bark can be slipped off, the woody part cut away
to suit, and a whistle completed when the bark
sheath is again in place.
He goes to the elder patch and cuts a stalk to
length, punches out the pith, fits a ramrod and he
has a popgun. And for wads he chews paper into
pellets, which go off with a startling crack, and for
as long as his "tummy" will stand the pressure.
Of course, this boy like every other country
boy had his "bean shooter," a forked stick with
a rubber band on each prong, and a leather patch
between for pebbles. With this, such accuracy of
First trolley car, invented in 1846
aim was attained
by the brothers
that
shooting at
green apples was
limited to just skin
But
became
ning them.
this,
too,
such a
sult
common
that even
re
it
lost its attraction.
Or, like the strip
ling David did so
Modern
40
electric locomotive
long ago, he makes him
self a slingshot of a dia
mond shaped
piece
of
and a string,
with which pebbles can
leather
be hurled to incredible
distances, and which he
can do safely only in the
country.
Later he rives out a
hickory bow, and with a
broken piece of window glass scrapes it to a beautiful
smoothness, and he has bow and arrow. If he wants
more formidable ammunition, he cuts some notches
about the end of the shaft, wraps a bit of writing
paper about it and pours in lead for a tip of more
If he seeks greater accuracy of
striking power.
he
bind
feathers to the other end of the
flight
may
shaft.
In addition to all these activities he probably
spends a whole day in the blazing sun building a
mud dam across the burbling creek just where the
The stream is thus restricted to a
ripples end.
narrow overflow, and here he sets a water wheel
whittled from pine sticks. Or he floats a ship through
a canal, scooped out of the gravel floor of the creek
and along the foot of the mud bank. The graduate
engineer has nothing on the youngster, though the
boy's level may only
m m: be a shingle with
^
two pins
set in the
ends and across the
tops of which he
sights as the shingle
on a pan of
floats
water.
If the creek
far
First induction motor, Prof.
Thompson, 1888
41
is
too
away, he prob-
ably builds a railway
instead, the car of
which he pushes ahead
him with all his
might and main until,
of
considerable momen
tum having been at
tained, jumps on, join
ing his brother and
sister, to ride only a
few
feet,
and then
re
peat.
If there's a hill avail
able, he builds him a
The
bobsled for winter sport
and a long-geared wag
The
on for summer.
country boy knew long before
the automobile engineer did that for safe speed a
Even the city boy
long wheel base is necessary.
from the boughten
loose
the
front
wheels
knocked
board years before
a
with
wagon and lengthened it
built.
was
first
modern
car
the
racing
It was on the farm this boy learned the rudiments
of weather-cloud, and goosebone lore, learned to
know which is the north side of trees, the wood
man's natural compass; that the great dipper
would tell him the
time of night and
that mu lien leaves
tea party
;
rubbed on would
neutralize poison
ivy and give im
mediate relief;
learned to make
box traps, and
deadfalls, with
;<
'
igure-f our'
trip-triggers; and
f
to line bee trees
"Just make-believe tea"
42
for
honey by watching
the successive flight of
the bees from a saucer
of sweetened water;
learned to know the foot
tracks of all the wood
for
folks, to bait traps
T
Early Bell telephone, 1876
coons with crawfish, and
to note that a possum
carries her young on her back, while the little fellows
hold on with claws and tail.
In due time the boy traded for a gun, the first
breach -loader he had ever seen, the cartridges being
loaded by hand at home.
With this he and his
brother became quite expert, even setting up in
the empty fireplace of the living room a heavy oak
board to hold a bit of white paper for a target.
Of course, when the father discovered this he said it
.
,
T
T
must be stopped. But boys can't see danger and
begged to continue just a little longer. Then the
father, interested, must try his skill. But fumbling
with the gun it goes off prematurely, frightening
everyone, and this, it can be well understood, stopped
parlor shooting right there.
It
was a
rience
similar expe
when the
brothers
were discovered spinning
string tops in the kitchen.
The
father would stop the
hazardous sport, but be
fore doing so must first try
his hand.
Winding the
string on the top with de
liberation for a very supe
rior shot, he makes the
cast only to have the string
fail to let go of the peg,
with the result that the
top
Dr. A. Graham Bell
43
is
jerked back through
a window.
And that
ended for all time the
spinning of tops in the
house.
Very naturally being
adept with tools, the
farm tool repairs were
left for the boy to do.
So one day finishing a
The farmer friend, the iron mule
singletree, and getting
red paint on his hands
just at dinner time, the mischievous rascal went
into the house holding his crimson hand in the
's
But the evident distress of the mother, as
jumped up from the table to dress his hurt, so
shamed him that he quickly undeceived her; though
he should have had his ears boxed for his joke.
When the new brick house was built, to replace
the old two-story log house, the log house was
thereafter used as a tool house and work shop.
Working in this old building the boy ultimately no
other.
she
ticed the peculiar locking of the logs at the corners,
a system of notching, invented by some pioneer,
by which the weight of additional logs and of the
The higher
roof locked the logs firmly together.
the house, and the heavier the roof -load the more
firmly the building withstood the force of storms
which tended to
tear it apart. It
was a real en
gineering feat,
though
ventor
its
in
remains
unknown and
unsung.
It must have
been about the
time the boy
his arm
broke
The boyhood home
44
for the second time that
he suggested the perpetual
motion machine solution.
On the farm a treadmill
was used to drive the fod
A big, heavy
der-cutter.
horse simply walked up
the incline of the treadmill
to produce the power, he
didn't pull anything, why
wouldn't the weight of a
cart load of gravel do as
well? It had wheels in
stead of legs, so the plat
Joke on Uncle Charles
form could move under
The reasoning so impressed the
just as easily.
neighbors that a cart was loaded, and tied in the
mill, tied to prevent its running out at the bottom.
Of course, it didn't work. But it was many years
later before the boy learned about "the resultant
of forces," and was able to predict with accuracy
the result of similar experiments.
But there was no one
about when the boy broke
his arm this second time.
He was
mow
looking in the oats
for
baby
rats,
and
feels
yet the bare -skinned
pink
little
and pulsing
bodies, so soft
as they snug
gled in the cracks between
his ringers, with tiny wet
noses, their eyes not yet
With two or three
open.
such
miniature specimens
hand, he accidentally
stepped on the unsupported
end of a rail of the floor of
the oats loft and went
in his
Joe Jefferson as Rip
Van Winkle
45
through to the ground below.
fork
after
stuck
A
pitch
into the
following
of the thigh so deeply that the
mother, who came running when she
heard him crying, had to put her foot
on his leg to pull the fork out. Then
one of the hired men was sent on
horseback for the country doctor, who
came in his one-horse shay. When
he arrived the boy's attention was
about equally divided between watch
ing the doctor set the arm, and study
ing the hand-full of fascinating little
red rats, which he refused to part with
bone
through it all.
Because of the boy's gift of mecnan i cal intuition, it early fell to his lot
11
to keep all the tarm machinery in order.
As has already been noted his father was progressive
and was the first in the neighborhood to get the
newest farm implements. So the boy's oversight
took in a wide range of tools, for the well-equipped
farm has a great variety of machines, for clearing
ground, for preparing the soil for seeding, for the
i
l
i
planting, cultivation and harvesting of crops, and
the threshing and storing of grain.
His "power
factors" were horses and steam, and his playthings
riding-plows
and
cultivators,
mowers, har
selfthresh
binders,
vesters,
ing machines,
traction engines,
farm sawmills,
feed cutters,
windmills, hayriggers, etc.
An
46
old one-horse shay
The boy's
father bought
the first selfbinder in that
part of the
country. When
was received
it
the boy di
rected
ting
its set
up,
and
Threshing wheat by power
one Saturday
wistfully watched his father drive it into the grain
field.
Everyone about the place was very proud
and more or less excited. All went well except that
sheaves would often be kicked off with the knot so
insecurely tied that the sheaf would come open.
So the first day's work was somewhat disappointing.
The following morning, although it was the Sab
bath, saw the boy studying the intricacies of the
knotting mechanism. This he could do with less
difficulty than a grown-up, for he was so small that
he could get inside the machine.
Meeting time
came on but he had not yet found the trouble.
After much coaxing, the young investigator was left
with his new-found problem, while the family drove
away in the carriage to church service. Before
they returned
he had dis
covered the
knotter trou
ble and cor
rected it, and
on the mor
row the work
was done with
perfectly tied
sheaves, much
to the satisfac
tion of every
body.
47
Of course he was lauded
though
perhaps undeservedly, for
the born inventor is en
for his attainment,
to
little
what he
does.
titled
praise
for
Like the
great painter and the great
sculptor, his is a natural
gift,
and accomplishments
are for him too easy to de
serve unusual mention.
The boy's
quickly
locate
ability to
trouble
in
machinery amounted to an
almost uncanny intuition.
the meadow one day to
into
him
took
father
His
had
the
mower
discover why
stopped. The farm
hand reported he could see nothing wrong but "it
wouldn't go." The boy quickly located the trouble,
a hot bearing. He poured water from the drinking
Self-binder for harvesting wheat
jug onto the bearing until it cooled off; then, flooding
with oil, it was ready to go again.
Perhaps the boy showed contempt because no
one else saw the cause of
the trouble, for the father
it
reproved him, saying:
"That is thy gift, and to
thee it is no great credit,"
a remark never forgotten.
It was after the visit of
Barnum's Circus to the
nearby town that the boy
started in to teach his colt
to stand on a tub as he
had seen the ponies do in
the show. The schooling
was progressing
well,
when
suddenly the boards laid
across the tub spread and
Largest grapevine
48
known
let
the colt through.
So the boy's
activities ended
for
the
colt
circus
there,
would
not try any more.
In due course, to
cultivate a taste for
thrift in the boys, the
gave each of
father
them a sheep, the in
crease of which was
Drives her own horseless carriage
to be their very own.
In time the beginning
of a substantial flock resulted.
One day, hearing
that a pedal-propelled vehicle had come to the city
some ten miles away, the boy went to see the new
thing. Then, hastening home, he sold his sheep to
get the money to pay for his first bicycle. Thereupon
ponies and such like were second rate attractions,
for this high-wheeled vehicle crowded everything
else aside for weeks.
As the novelty of the first bicycle wore off, the
boy's ambition to travel grew until on a certain
eventful day his father and mother reluctantly car
ried him to the railroad station, buying a ticket for
the Pacific Coast. Getting safely through the great
city at the foot of Lake Michigan, he found himself
aboard one of the "tourists pullman" coaches, fitted
with cane upholstered
seats. It
was the first
had
sleeping car he
ever seen, and
the
work of the porter
was a source of inter
est, as was the effort
of an immigrant fam
ily
to
carry
three
through on two tick
ets.
Bicycle of 1885
49
The
father
and
Freight
ing
in
the
desert
1
mother would shut up the 16-year old boy in the
smothering upper berth until the conductor had
passed through the car punching the tickets, then
they would let him out until night, when all three
would sleep in that same section.
The
limitless
expanse of the great barren plains
was a revelation to the boy raised in the hardwood
timber region, plains over which roamed immense
herds of bison only a few years before when the boy's
uncle crossed in the early operation of the Union
Pacific railway, a moving mass so great that the
had to be stopped until it passed. The evi
dence of the subsequent great slaughter was the
skeletons scattered over a territory as wide as the boy
train
could
see.
But with
Pike's Peak
passed, the
train
began
long as
cent of the
,
,
its
Sierra
Ne-
KHp
vadaMountains, going
by
the
switchback
and the long
Crossing the plains in an auto
50
1910
snow sheds, every
foot of which, it
can well be im
agined, held the
young engineer's
interest. Landing
on the coast, work
was quickly
In
found.
fact
his entire sojourn
in a mining, lum
Logging in the snow
bering and ranch
ing west was made easy by his knack of doing me
chanical things, a west where most of the activities
were in charge of young men, college graduates often,
many
of
whom had
not yet attained manhood.
The boy is not apt soon to forget his first employ
ment at one of the great sawmills. He was sent out
into the mill pond to ride the logs up to the foot
of the inclined runway where the chain picked up
the log and carried it to the saws. Watching the
other men riding the logs about as they poled them
up to the carrier, jumping from one to another all
over the pond as they made their selections, the
thing looked easy. The logs were round as dollars,
and
boy
when the
tried
it
the
log simply rolled
over
and
dumped him
in
to the water.
He
stuck it out,
however, and
attained some
proficiency
,
though he went
under many
times, and
worked all day
in wet clothes.
Riding
logs in mill
pond
51
The
rail
road natural
ly attracted
him, as it has
many
other
youngstersbef ore
It
and
since.
was not
long before
the boy was
second
The runway
to the
in
charge of a
wreck train.
One day or
saws
ders were delivered to him to go to "the junction"
and clear a wreck. Arriving, he found that a freight
train on one track had run halfway through a freight
on the cross road. Clearing the tracks in a hurry to
permit the movement of eastbound perishable freight
was the immediate job. So, pulling the wreckage
apart with locomotives as far as this was possible,
he ordered oil poured on the tangled snarl of smashed up wooden cars and set it afire. With the wood
work burned away the remaining wreckage was
easily pulled apart and the tracks cleared and trains
running in
three hours, a
which
was
complimented
feat for
the boy
by the super
intendent a
few days later,
though half
expecting cen-
sure for de
stroying com
pany propererty.
There were
Double-bitted lumber
52
saw
many un
familiar
things to in
terest the
boy,
moun
tains and
great rivers,
big trees,
new
beasts
and birds
and wild
flowers.
Then
there
In Yosemite Park
was the
freshet on
the melting of the snow in the mountains. How the
great Columbia would sweep through the gorges, an
irresistible flood, humped up in midstream. Perhaps
the awe-inspiring sight of so much rushing water im
pressed him as it did another Eastern tenderfoot, who
remarked: "Boy, I'd like to see the old ocean now; I'll
bet she's aboomin."
Among the boy's first purchases was a rifle and a
pony, and with these he roamed the forests on the
mountain
sides.
The pony became
his
chum, follow
ing close up,
and frequent
ly nuzzling at
pockets for the
apple, sugar or
other tidbit
with which he
was rewarded.
One day
as
the boy push
ed through
underbrush,
alert and all on
for the
startling whir
edge
The
oldest living thing;
Redwood
trees of California
53
of the upwinging grouse,
the pony took hold of the
boy's coat shoulder. This
so startled him that he
whirled and unthinkingly
slapped the pony. That
was a regrettable act, for
never thereafter would the
pony follow so closely,
with the previous inti
mate comradeship.
On another excursion
the pony and boy went
camping with a small
party to the beach, the
boy's first sight of the
ocean. It was some miles
from the nearest settle
Yosemite Falls
ment, and the great stretch of beach was practically
virgin territory. The only trail to the nearest post of
was five or six miles around, though scarcely two
fice
great sand dune. When it was the
turn
to
for
the mail, he led his pony up the
boy's
go
side of this great sand pile, perhaps 200 or 300 feet
high, and then, mounting, rode along its top until
progress was interrupted by a chasm. Across this
chasm a great tree
had fallen a long time
miles
away over a
before, as shown by
the flatness on top of
the log, worn by the
many a bear
feet of
going over it. Throw
ing the rein on the
ground, the boy start
ed across the log,leaving the pony to await
his return.
Halfway
over, a sound from be
hind
made
the boy
Ihis harvester does the work of 600
with cradles
54
men
turn, to discover the
to fol
pony trying
low, tossing her head
to free the dragging
In sympathy
and pride the boy
returned, picked up
rein.
thetrippingrein,and
both safely crossed
this natural log
bridge together, la
ter returning the
Starfish
same way, and this time the boy rode across.
The next day the boy, afoot, crossed another of
these great sand dunes, which extended out into the
ocean and formed a cove of quiet water inside. Here
the boy came down upon a most wonderful marine
garden, blooming with multi-colored star fish, sea ur
chins, and other sea growth just under the surface of
the smooth blue-green water. Removing his jacket he
filled it with these wonders to take back to camp. He
then labored in the hot sun to get this precious find
over the top of the hill of oozy sand, buoyed up by the
thought of the delight and pride of his mother, in the
home back east, when she opened the box he would
send her. The journey ended, he spread out his treas
ures in the sun to dry.
Great was his disappoint
ment next morning to find
that in the night wild hogs
had come down out of the
hills and eaten his whole
catch.
Then
was the
back
into the
hunting trip
where
in the
foot-hills,
there
dust of the paths deer
tracks appeared, in size
and
figure not greatly dis
similar from the hoof
Deer horns
55
tracks of the sheep in the
paths on the farm back home.
The party, scattering soon
after noon, left the boy alone
in this wilderness of burnedover terrain, and being only
an amateur "big-game"
hunter, he early turned his
steps toward the descending
sun so as to reach the coast
before the dark should come
down. On his way in he
heard the barking of dogs
ahead of him. Following
the sound of their baying
Cub
bear
he came out into a glade,
in the middle of which he saw
a burned-off stump, perhaps twenty feet tall, on the
top of which perched a young black bear languidly
watching the dogs harmlessly yelping below. It was an
easy shot, but as there was no way to get the meat in
to camp, and having no heart for killing just for the
sake of killing, the boy continued his journey, to the
evident disgust of the dogs, for their noise soon ceased,
with a few parting remarks to the bear that next time
they treed him he wouldn't get off so easily.
Next morn
ing
the
tide
was unusually
low, so, rolling
his trous
up
ers,
the
boy
took an ax
and cutting
into
the
soft
sandstone
cliffs
below
mid-tide, as he
had been
in
structed, he
A
56
papoose carrier
split slabs off
the
soft stone to find
the
native
rock
oysters, long slim,
bivalves, the big
end inside their
selfmade stone
cells.
Pinching
off
the long, thin,
black outer neck,
the pink body of
the oyster was
swallowed whole,
making a dainty morsel indeed.
This camping trip was most enjoyable and all too
soon ended. It took two days to make the return
journey home, the night being spent beside a crystalclear mountain stream. Sometime in the night the un
easiness of the horses waked everybody, only to dis
cover a big, black bear, some distance down the trail,
sitting on his haunches inspecting the visitors to his
territory. Presently, satisfied, he went away, but that
big fellow sitting in the road, and the shape of his
tracks in the soft earth, examined next morning when
the journey was resumed, will never be forgotten.
Boys be
ing social
animals,
and this boy
being no ex
ception, he,
of course,
had a chum
and a girl.
The chum
being simi
larly attach
ed, the four
of
them
out
Wyoming
red sage
57
set
on an
evening's adventure soon
after his return from the
coast. Borrowing the work
car of a Chinese section
gang, after the white boss
had refused to let them have
the car but had accommo
datingly told them he was
going into town for two
hours, the trip was begun
down that crazy right of
way with a rickety old
pump-car from which the
the brakes had been lost.
Why the kids were not
killed on that wild un
Edward Muybridge first to study animal
checked ride down the long
motion analytically
grade may not be known.
However, ultimately the car stopped at the end of a
trestle over a ravine through which a winding road
led.
Reacting from the excitement, shooting irons
were brought forth in bravado, and after much per
suasion the boy's girl, with
averted face and a hand
over an ear, fired the gun
without aim into the ravine.
However, as the boy passed
down the ravine the next
day, he found a wild boar
shot deadbyabullet square
ly in its forehead.
After a year's stay in our
great Northwest, the boy
returned home for a visit,
only to find that his stories
of the wonders he had seen
were not believed, stories
of high mountains, of great
gashes in the earth, of won
drous waterfalls, of tall
They had whiskers
58
in those
days
trees, of rivers full of fish
from bank to bank when
the ocean waves went
back from the river's
mouth.
In all his travels he
made
it
A
a rule to visit
Buffalo Bill gun
his folks at least once
a year, and it is a great commentary on the security of
this peaceful Quaker settlement to say that on each of
the boy's return trips home he never found the door
locked, and could quietly enter and lie down on the
sofa without wakening anyone.
But the attraction of the great out-of-doors soon
proved too strong, and again he turned his face out
ward, this time going to the great Southwest. He
proudly took along two bright blue pistols, with regu
and
He wore them
just one day.
the
of
of
bad men of
some
Noting the shooting skill
that region, he went back to the bunk house, took off
his artillery, threw it into his trunk, and there it
stayed. His judgment was wise, for the bad men shot
up each other, while the unarmed man lived longer.
lation holster
belt.
Visiting the Sierra Nevada mines, the boy found
plenty of work for his aptitude in mechanisms, re
pairing hoisting machinery, mine locomotives, deep
well pumps, air compressions, and what not.
One
of his
jobs was
the repair of a
first
hoister.
He was
sent up the side
of the moun
tain with orders
to hoist with
air until he
could get up
steam. But as
the
boiler
leaked badly
An
Arizona mining scene
59
it
was hard to keep
fire to make
steam ahead of
his needs. Pres
pyw,"-7-~
-
-
-.-^^sp^s.^
ently a messen
ger from the boss
ordered the boy
to stop using air,
and stop at once.
As the boss sittin
in his office
^^ ^^ ^
Colorado gold mines
the engine exhaust, there was only one thing to do, and
that was to fill the boiler with air between bells and
hoist with an air-steam exhaust. And he got away
with
it,
too.
He
soon was a favorite with Bob, the watchman at
the railhead of a spur of the Santa Fe railroad. This
was doubtless lucky for the boy on the evening he
borrowed a locomotive during the watchman's ab
sence.
Clattering over the switch frogs, and out
onto the prairie ten miles or so, he took his ranchgirl friend for a ride, only
to return later to find the
watchman sitting on a
cross-tie waiting for the
young
fearless
He was a
watchman, was
thief.
b ut the b oy w as only
a boy, and Bob was Bob,
so there were no regret
B ob
,
table consequences.
Easy-going, good-na
tured Bob, when he came
off his watch, usually
slept until one or two
o'clock in the afternoon.
The remainder of the
day was spent gambling.
was on one of these
It
The young engineer
60
occasions, sitting in a
two-bit game with the
Chinese cook and a tin
horn gambler who had
lost an eye in some ruc
Bob asserted
After playing
along quietly for a time,
everyone in the saloon
was startled when a
tion, that
himself.
A plain s horse
gun came down, whack,
on the table; to be fol
lowed by roars of laughter when Bob was heard to say
"They's cheatin' goin' on 'round this table; I ain't
goin' to name no names, but ef it ain't stopped some
body is goin' to lose his other eye."
It was down in this barren country where the heat
is blistering by day, but where one sleeps under
blankets at night, that the boy found a bath scarcer
:
than gold nuggets. The mill superintendent said he
thought he had seen a tub somewhere about the
"diggins," but with
water hauled ten
miles and costing six
bits a barrel,he didn't
think it had ever been
set up. So, borrowing
horses, the boy and a
friend rode across
country to where,
they were told, a lake
could be found. They
found it, but the en
tire margin was thick
with knifedried
flags
sharp,
ly lined
over which they
would have to swim
to get into clean
water, so the attempt
Arizona cactus
61
was abandoned.
Perhaps their de
cision
was hast
ened by the mean
looks of great
hairy spiders and
immense centi
pedes on guard
about the margin
of the lake.
By
Mexican mines
the by,
it
was also down in
brief
a
this torrid region during
engagement with a
to cook eggs and
learned
the
that
cow outfit,
boy
hot
on
a
fresh meat
stone, by laying a piece of paper
and
on the stone
breaking the eggs thereon before
the paper caught fire.
He also noticed that a bit of hair stuck to a cold
branding iron was not burned off when the iron was
put into the fire, until the iron was red hot. Prac
tically applied, this means, for example, that a
surgeon's or dentist's instruments cannot be sterilized
by holding them momentarily in an alcohol flame.
There was a stage route between the camp and
town, the stage coach of the old, pioneer type, like
the first public conveyance between Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh.
The body hung
in two great
leather straps
running fore-
and-aft, and
the coach was
drawn by four
horses For
.
some reason
or
other the regu-
lar
driver
wished to get
off for a few
Old pioneer stagecoach
62
days and asked the boy to
"take her out." So the boy
mounted the box and, work
ing over the grade, came down
onto the flat, where the little
"road runner" joined him, a
lizzard -eating bird which al
ternately ran and flew along
of the horses for miles
every trip. All went well for
ahead
a week, when one day, com
ing in, the horses got fright
ened and ran away. Down
Do you remember when we cranked
the mountain road they came,
the phone?
dragging the lumbering coach
after them with the wheels ineffectively locked. The
boy was able to keep the coach upright until it hit the
sharp turn over the railroad in the edge of town. Here
it went over. The boy was thrown clear, but had to
crawl along with a broken leg until help arrived.
This was the year the Apaches got off the reserva
tion and began a soiree of massacre, reports of which
came in with the ranchers, when
they brought their wives and
children into
camp
tion, while the
for protec
men
organized
posses to hunt down the Indians.
After the first excitement not
much was heard of the raid,
though camp life was enlivened
by the arrival of a cavalry troop.
Sam
Bryan,
president;
an
So after a time, nothing much
happening, the boy and his
bunkie, a young assayer, set
out one morning to locate for
an old miner, for record, an ore
prospect near the foot of Cook's
Peak. Running lines from gov
ernment monuments, the work
was about finished when sudearly
telephone
a personal friend
63
denly shooting began,
with puffs of smoke ris
ing from boulders on the
side of the Peak, fol
lowed by mean little
messengers singing a
spiteful, high-pitched
song as they sped past
the boy's ears.
Mexican corn grinders
Every
one dropped tools and
instruments and sought shelter, including the two
Mexican helpers, who, however, were shot before
shelter was reached. Those little lead pellets left blue
spots on the stones uncomfortably near, but fortu
nately without harm for the white "hombres" until
one found the fleshy part of the boy's leg, but luckily
not breaking the bone. After minutes which seemed
hours, safe haven was found behind a great rock, and
there the boys waited until nightfall. Then, stealing
out from their shelter, they caught their hobbled
ponies and loped back to camp in safety to tell their
story and join a quickly organized scouting party.
But that was not to be the last encounter. A few
evenings later the boy's bunkie, the young assayer,
went just around the hill from camp, only a few
hundred yards away, to get some ore samples.
Shortly after a shot was faintly heard in that direc
tion. A hasty investigation, and the boy came back
mourning a murdered chum, shot in the back by a
sneaking varmint.
Drab days
followed, but
work
that
,
great restorer,
brought re
newed inter
est,
and
soft
ened depress
ing recollec
tions
.
For
First prize for artistic photographs
64
there was heavy machinery
to move across the border in
to Mexico. Many delightfully
problems were en
countered. The most stubborn
one was the loosening of the
big belt pulley. To the great
shafts in the mill, these pulleys
difficult
were keyed; with keys which
would not move, though arches
were used and a heavy shaft
A prophecy of a wireless telephone
endwise,
arches of the best steel the
blacksmith had. So the pulley-mounted shafts were
loaded on the cars as they were, though overhanging
the sides. When these were later taken from the cars
and loaded on wagons, with twenty yoke of oxen
hitched thereto, the journey to the new mines was
begun. The wagons went creaking along uninter
ruptedly until Bitter Water Gulch was reached. Here
it was found that the big wooden pulleys on the shaft
would not pass between the canyon walls. So the
wagon was drawn from under and the pulleys were
burned off the shaft, later to be rebuilt by the carpen
dropped thereon
ters
when on
location.
of his annual visits
On one
took a
civil
back home the boy
nearby city,
and some months la
service examination in a
ter,
being then in Mex
he received
ico again,
a delayed telegram
which notified him of
his appointment to a
clerkship in Washing
ton, D.C. Thereupon,
after giving to his
bunkie his guns and
belt as a rosary, he
turned his face toward
the city which became
Arlington talks
to
Paris by radio 1918
65
in time his
residence.
permanent
His notification of
appointment had in
structed him to report to
the appointment clerk,
and, being accustomed
to go to work soon after
sun-up, he sought the
Department building
about seven
to find
it
a. m., only
a cold, forbid
ding mass of granite
with equally uninviting
watchmen sitting in
lonely state at all the
doors.
The young ad
The United States Capitol
venturer was turned
back and told that the
building wasn't open until nine o'clock.
But when he did get in, what a wealth of new im
pressions and strange experiences followed his intro
duction to "official life" in Washington. One of these
first impressions was that no one seemed to work very
hard at anything, and that the principal topic of
discussion was
annual and
sick leave, the
clerks getting
thirty days of
each, and
much more
as
as
he or she could
get by plan
ning vacation
to begin on
Tuesday after a
Monday
holi
or
to
end
day,
as
advantaCapitol from the air; plane flying southeast
66
geously on a Friday.
Then there were the
dear old ladies who
brewed tea midway be
tween nine o'clock and
noon, and again between
one o'clock and four p.m.
Many of them acted as if
they wished they might
go to work at twelve, get
an hour for lunch, and
quit work at one o'clock.
Each
clerk
pre-Spanish
had
his
in
those
war years
issued to him, for
private use, sta
Washington Monument from the air looking
like a tack standing on its head
own
tionery, pens, pencils,
and accessories, soap, towels, hair brush
and comb,
shoe-shining brush and polish, and what not, petty
graft, since wisely discontinued. But these perquisites
were picayune compared to what the secretaries, as
sistants, chiefs of bureaus,
their like secured while
and
public conscience as to official
graft con tinue d so elastic that
Congressmen sent household
furniture across the conti
nent at public expense, a cus
tom which prevailed until
the postal clerks grumbled at
handling, as a piece of first
class mail, a piano which was
being sent from Washington
to a distant city under the
Congressman's franking
privilege.
The boy soon found
his
place as secretary to that
Sumner
1.
Kimball
founder of the U. S.
Life Saving Service
gifted man of humanitarian
vision, Sumner I. Kimball,
67
organizer of the
Life Saving Serv
II
ice.
II
The work was
very
and
interesting,
as the annual
reports were dic
tated to the boy
to be typewritten,
he learned the
thrilling stories of
heroic battles
The lone 'patrolman
with the sea to
of lonely patrols in blizzard weather;
of sailors lashed to the rigging and drenched with
freezing spray, or snatched overboard by the angry
sea; and which often later laid the dead body on the
beach, gently and tenderly, as though in atonement
for her ungovernable fury of the day before.
Perhaps for the boy one of the most interesting
mechanical features of the city was the Seventh
Street cable car line, and its powerhouse, with cable
save
human life;
passed around the easing-pulley which gentled the
savage jerking of a green gripman. Once the boy
stayed up all night to watch the men put in a new
cable, pulled from the powerhouse to the end of the
line, around the pulley and back again, with twenty
big horses. But in due course the cable road passed
out, to be followed by the electric underground trolley,
though there
were plenty of
methods
tried
before the pres
ent system was
finally adopted.
And doubt
such things
interested him
far more than
less
the Davie
Burns Cottage,
Coast Guard surf boat
68
one
of
the
very
early houses
in
Washington or the
Chamberlain res
taurant where so
many of the legis
lators of that day
habitually ate; or
;
Hamilton-Burr flintlock dueling
pistol
H
Street with no front entrance; or the
the house on
little stone house which was George Washington's
war-headquarters; or the proximity of the Hamiltonof which he had read, and
such like historical attractions.
In common with vivacious youngsters, military
pomp and circumstance had its attraction, and next
we find him enlisted in the District National Guard;
however, more as a recreation than any realization of
possible war activity. But a single encampment was
enough for this boy, and a furlough for the balance
of his enlistment was granted.
But the gay life of the capital with its attractions,
Burr dueling grounds,
its charming femininity and handsome manhood, its
private and its official functions, resplendent with
gold-braided officers and bemedaled ambassadors
was not the only force shaping the activities of the
youngster. Shorthand
was all very well for a
daily vocation, short
hand which had been
learned while sitting on
a plow-beam back home
;
and dancing and good
friends were
all
right for
the night-time, but as an
avocation, a hobby,
photography was taken
up, and developed along
a new line, motion pic
tures, but which, because
it had not yet been chrisFirst Jenkins motion-picture camera
69
tened, he called "devices for re
cording and reproducing
mo
tion."
But the mechanical, optical
and photographic problems did
not
yield readily. Each step
required new mechanism and
new
material.
A
considerable
length of light-sensitive film
was adjudged to be the best
upon which to photo
but
no such required
graph,
of
film
was to be had.
length
surface
7.
D. Boyce, photographer, who
So the
devel
oped the first motion picture negatives
tissue-like film
that time for
made
at
kodak cameras
was bought in local shops, slit
into strips in the dark, and spliced into considerable
lengths.
Cameras for exposing this strip evenly and in rapid
succession were made, as well as devices for develop
ing this long length, and others for printing a positive
therefrom for lantern projection.
It was fascinating work, although the results were
strange and awesome to the ath
letic friends who had willingly
enough tumbled, jumped, or
otherwise performed in front of
the
strange
camera
without
clearly understanding until days
later what the resultant pictures
were to look like. The most
accomodating athlete, and the
most frequently photographed,
was Arthur J. McElhone, son of
a pioneer shorthand reporter
of Congress.
It is a strange fact that
^
BBE'M
BS^
no
one ever seemed to compre
hend from an oral description
what "motion pictures" were,
Arthur J. McElhone,
first
picture "star"
70
v
motion
or had a right mental
concept of them un
til seen for the first
time, perhaps be
cause nothing had
ever gone before by
which these ani
mated pictures
could be compared.
In the projector
an oil lantern was his
first
source of illum
First motion picture projector, 1893
Jenkins; the begin
ning of a $500,000,000 industry
ination, but in 1893,
after three years of work with the new idea, a friend,
wight G. Washburn, fitted an arc lamp to the
chine, and the first motion pictures projected by elec
tric light appeared on a large canvas. Accounts of
these and subsequent exhibitions appeared first in the
Richmond Telegram, June 6, 1894, and again in the
D
ma
Photographic Times, July 7, 1894.
Incidentally it may be recorded that pictures of a lit
tle girl dancing, illuminated by similar electric lamps,
were made in Mr. Washburn's place in 1893, the first
motion pictures ever made by artificial illumination.
As the plaything developed it attracted to itself
more and more attention, as better and better screen
pictures were attained, until in the summer and fall
of 1894
demon
strations were
rather regularly
made;principally,
however, to grat
ify pride in ac
complishment
rather than with
any thought
of
fi
nancial gain, for
no admission
to
these
fee
exhibi
tions was ever
Early Chronoteine camera
71
.
4)
3
C
1
b
.2
1
^r
"*
fl
TI
^
^
O)
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fl I-H
O
.
PT3
en
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^3 pO
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^Sill
72
The accompanying cuts show the Elliott Cresson Gold Medal
awarded by the Franklin Institute, of Philadelphia, for a
machine exhibited before the Institute in 1895 by Mr. C. Francis
Jenkins.
Later, in making a second award, that of the John Scott
Medal, "in recognition of the value of this invention," the
Institute Committee said: "Eighteen years ago the applicant
exhibited a commercial motion picture projecting machine
which he termed the Thantoscope.' This was recognized by
the Institute and subsequently proved to be the first successful
form of projecting machine for the production of life-size motion
pictures from a narrow strip of film containing successive phases
of motion."
73
m
74
charged.
At
first
the
mak
ers of roll negative
for hand cameras de
clined to furnish the
much-desired
First long film
was of a
little
dancing
girl
long
lengths of film. Fin
ally yeilding to per
sistent urging, they
advised that if a
whole table of film
was ordered
(22
inches wide by 100 feet long), and cash accompanied
the order, the film would be furnished in hundred-foot
lengths. But "the father of motion pictures" didn't
have that much money. Finally a compromise was
effected, and a supply of the precious long strips of
celluloid ribbon
was
available.
we find
him not only giving
exhibitions with his Phantoscope picture machine,
but, representing the League of American Wheel
men, making a lone bicycle trip from Washington to
his old home at Richmond, Indiana.
The route was up the towpath of the C. & O.
Canal to its intersection with the Old National Road,
The same
year, 1894,
which was then
followed through
Wheeling and
Columbus.
The mules pulling the canalboats were not
yet accustomed
to bicycles, and,
getting out of con
trol of the driver,
ran
down
the em-
bankment
into
permit
ting the boat to
the
field,
Old C.
75
&
0. Canal
When
drift.
the
cyclist had passed,
the mules got back
again on the towpath and tightened
up on the towline.
The boy had for
gotten that
it
lay
hidden in the tall
weeds, and ignominiously the cycle
and its rider were
swept into the
Children chained
to top
of canal boat to prevent theii
This mis
falling off
was
the
cause
hap
of great glee on the part of the boatmen, between
whom and the cyclists there was no love at all. But
the boy fished his cycle out of the canal with a tree
branch and went on his way.
Another incident of this cycle trip seems worthy
of repeating, for it disclosed to the boy a new point
of view. He stopped in a mountaineer's cabin to get
out of the rain. There was a ladder in one corner of
the cabin reaching up to an opening in the space
under the roof. At different elevations on the rungs
of this ladder sat the mother and two grown daugh
When the
ters, in silent, barefooted contentment.
shower passed the mountaineer went out to fetch a
canal.
watermelon;
the cyclist
meantime
,
trying to
encourage
friendly ad
dress, tells
them how
far
he has already
come. At this
the mother
exclaimed:
A
Virginia mountaineer's cabin
76
"What, from
Washington, D.
C.? Gee, I'd think
you
ful
in'
all'ed feel
aw
lonesome livso fur away."
The center of the
world for them
was that log
cabin on the
"Peacemaker" of 1894
mountainside.
After his return to Washington, the first official use
of the Phantoscope camera was made in an attempt to
photograph the flight of a projectile, on the occasion
of an armor test at the Indian Head Naval Proving
Grounds, the pass for transportation on the tug from
the Washington Navy Yard being signed by Admiral
Sampson, later of Spanish War fame. The camera was
duly set, and the camera motor started from the pro
tection of a bombproof. But the concussion of the very
first discharge of that great gun, "The Peacemaker,"
split the camera into kindling. The tug brought back
a wiser boy than it took down the Potomac River that
morning.
In the winter of 1894 the young inventor was in
troduced to the junior member of a real estate firm
in Washington, a man possessed of that great lubri
cant for inventions, money, and in March (1895) a
contract was
signed to 'fi
'
nance andpro-
mote the
in
vention of the
party of the
first
part."
Three
ma
chines, refined
copies of that
old 1894 pro
jector,
were
Atlanta Exposition motion picture projector
77
made and taken
to
the
Atlanta
Cotton States
E xp o si t ion
,
where a special
building was
erected,
being,
therefore,
first
Langley model power plane
the
motion picture theatre.
But attendance could not be secured because
it
was
found impossible to get a mental image of the new
pictures into the heads of the Midway visitors. They
would listen to the "barker," smile incredulously, and
pass on. The plan was then adopted of throwing the
doors open and inviting the weary sightseers to enter
and rest. Whatever they expected to see, it is
certain they were quieted, if indeed they were not
startled, by the exhibition. However, on suggestion,
nearly everyone left twenty-five cents at the box
office as they passed out, certainly a fine showing of
the American's love of fair play.
Then came the fire, started in the negro plantation
concession where an open gasoline torch and a
thatched roof kindled a blaze which swept southeast
and left nothing but charred remains of the con
cessions beyond, among which was that first motion
picture theatre.
One
of the three
projecting machines
was saved, for it had
been
left in
a trunk
at the hotel
down
town. This machine
was taken to New
York City by the
promoter without
the knowledge of the
inventor, and exhib
ited before T. A.
First
man-carrying
Fort
Wright
Myer, 1908
airplane
78
Edison's repre-
sentatives in a va
cant room in the
Postal Telegraph
Building, on lower
Broadway
;
whereupon an ar
rangement was
consummated
whereby the ma
chine was to be
Early Curtis Airplane, Arthur McCurdy,
pilot,
1908
made and mar
keted by the Edi
son Manufacturing Company, as the Edison Vitascope.
Meantime the inventor had gone back to his steno
graphic work. But this could not last long. Inventing
was now too fixed a habit, in the grip of which he was
helpless. So he handed in his resignation, explaining
to his good friend and chief, Mr. Kimball, that he had
determined that inventing should keep him or break
of the habit. And for seven long, grueling years
thereafter it wasn't certain which it would be.
him
Soon after resigning his position in the Treasury
Department, the young man brought his picture in
vention to the attention of the Franklin Institute,
of Philadelphia, giving a demonstration of such
realism that a motion was made to have it come be
fore the Committee on Science and the Arts, although
a member in seconding the motion said that, while
he thought the ab
breviated skirts
of the
dancing
shown on the
screen might not
add to the dignity
girls
of
the Institute,
he did, however,
heartily second
He
remarked
the motion.
also
that while on his
Curtis plane in the air
79
he should
ask the in
ventor if he could
suggest any plan
by which the de
vice could be
made commerci
feet
like to
ally profitable.
The inventor
had to say he
did not, though
machines
Early developing tray
of
one is the prototype are now in every
theatre the world over, and became the foundation of
one of the largest of all industries. The idea of a
special theatre for pictures had not yet been born.
It was the 5 cent theatre which later released the
golden flood; for just as the central exchange made
which
this
the telephone widely useful, so it was the establish
ment of the film exchange to serve many theatres in
turn with series of picture films, that made their
wide use possible, and motion picture a synonym for
easy
money
fortunes.
But to return to the Institute proceedings. After
due investigation, the Committee recommended that
the Elliott Cresson gold medal be awarded in recogni
tion of the invention of this wonderful machine
When
this recommendation was published in the Institute
Journal, a pro test was
filed
by interested
.
resulting in
period of
deliberation and con
sideration of evi
dence.
But in the
parties,
another
end the protest was
dismissed and the
award made, estab
lishing the fact of
sole inventorship of
First motor printer
(331
CONNECTICUT AVENUE,
WASHINGTON. D.C
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81
the type of projector which
has come into universal
use the world over.
Eighteen years later a
second medal was awarded
for further work in which
the judgment of the pre
vious committee award
was
affirmed.
A
Camera
built for
Maryland Agricultural
mutual friend intro
duced the young inventor
College
to that great
Graham
man, Dr. A.
Bell, of telephone
fame, who immediately asked if a demonstration could
not be made at his house on Connecticut Avenue.
This suggestion was carried out a few nights later, at
which time he inquired as to the feasibility of using
the new machine for teaching the deaf to read lip
motion. A test film was made of a repetition of the
Lord's Prayer, to the reproduction of which Mrs. Bell
was invited without her knowing what to expect. The
success of the experiment was considered proved when
Mrs. Bell began reading the message of the moving
lips in the pictures.
At
Dr.Bell's request, the film
was
deposited for safe keeping
in the Volta Laboratory,
Washington.
Oh, those wonderful
growing days, when a mo
tion picture of Niagara
Falls was intensely fasci
nating; the waves breaking
on the Atlantic City beach
awe inspiring; and the
Black Diamond Express
terrifying as it dashed
across the screen toward
the audience.
Niagara
82
Falls, from first
motion picture film
w
I t
a
s
gratifying
as s h o w ing an ap
preciation
of work well
done that
the
Kodak
Company
ordered of
the young
inventor a
An
film perfo
rator built
to meet the
early film-perforator
slowly increasing
length perforated film.
demand
for
long-
The machine was built, delivered, and personally
set up. But Mr. Eastman probably never knew that
was a blessing to the breakfastHis poverty was discovered, however,
less inventor.
when the request was made that the check in pay
ment for the machine be
his lunch invitation
cashed so that return rail
road fare could be bought.
It wasn't so very long
after this that John Carbutt, a dryplate maker, of
Wayne Junction, Pa., de
cided to begin the manu
facture of strip film for mo
This oc
tion pictures.
casioned a visit to the
Washington inventor,
First motion
picture camera
the
to
go into
where an order for certain
necessary machines was
placed, and which in time
were delivered.
It was likewise in the
Washington inventor's
little place that the motion
Klondike
83
picture camera was
made which
first
went into the Klondike, purchased
and taken there by
Herbert Miles.
In response to a
cablegram a trip
Motion picture camera made for Mr, Holmes
was made to New
York, and here the
motion picture in
ventor met the lec
turer, E. Burton
Holmes, and his
cameraman, Oscar
B. DePue. Plans
were discussed for
the construction of a special motion picture camera, a
camera which ultimately went several times around
the world.
But perhaps the most comedy came from the en
trance of "Pop" Lubin, a spectacle man of Phila
delphia, who came to the then Washington mecca of
picture apparatus and recklessly bought the whole
outfit.
Because
it
was Sunday, and no assistance
man, left on guard, slept on the
readily available, his
studio floor
Sunday night.
Lubin's rise
f
from this
humble equip
ment to a mul
ti-millionaire
establishment,
and his subse
quent loss of the
whole accumu
lation, is a story
in itself, not,
however, to be
Early commercial projector
84
told here.
It was about
this
time that
his efforts
were directed
toward prov
ing the worth
new in
strument as
of the
an aid in ed
ucation and in
Clock-controlled camera for studying plant growth
scientific
study. From the appropriation which Gifford Pinchot
secured from Congress to establish the IT. S. Forestry
Service, Mr. Pinchot set aside a sum for film, to be
used by the young man in photographing growing plants
The camera was set on a bench in a greenhouse of
the Agricultural Department, with its lens looking
at a box of earth in which tomato seed had been
planted. A motor was attached to the camera in such
a fashion that the film was exposed and moved forward
at regular time intervals controlled by a clock. The
plan was to show on a picture screen in a few min
utes the plant growth which had taken weeks to
produce, so that the plant could be seen pushing up
through the soil, putting out
leaves and buds, which flowering
.
later produced fruit. The work
went on nicely until one sad day
a driving rain, coming through
the greenhouse roof, got into the
camera and so cemented the
convolutions of the roll of ex
posed film that it could not be
unrolled for development. This
ignominiously ended the boy's
first purely scientific labors in
motion picture
use.
as
But,
always, a residue of
experience
Automatic paper-box capper
85
remained,
even
a
physical bit of the experiment,
perhaps, enough to indicate a
usefulness in educational work.
To no one did this feature appeal
more strongly than to Major W.
B. Powell, at the time Superin
tendent of District of Columbia
Schools, but best remembered
voyage of discovery down
the Grand Canon of the Colorado,
the first white man to explore its
for his
On February 11, 1899,
Powell
wrote thus: "I see
Major
a wide field for the use of your
Phantoscope in the teaching of
length.
Motion pictures on cards
science to the children of the
schools of the country," a vision which was not put
into tangible form for many years, although the
time was to come when a machine of this in
ventor's construction became a part of the equipment
of every high school in the city of Washington, and
as well many clubs and churches.
Nor was the
Board's action less effec
tive because of the friendly
activity of Professor Magee,
that odd scientist
spent his
who
annual vacations
in
the impressive silence of the
desert, by a waterhole in the
shade of a great rock, alone
for the whole of a thirty-day
sojourn each year.
In August, 1899, the motion
picture camera was again called
into use for scientific purposes,
this time to record a dramatic
ceremony,
i.
e.,
the snake dance
Hopi Indians, of TusaArizona.
yan,
Perhaps the story can be no
of the
Card motion picture
86
toy
better told here than it was told in a letter, written
by Mr. Jenkins on the train returning, addressed
to a friend back home.
"Dear Miss Grace:
"The great ceremony is over, and I am on my way
back to table meals and bath tubs.
"But it was a great show, and a solemn ceremony
in spite of the weird incantations and painted actors.
They seemed very much in earnest, these old Hopi
priests, and one could but respect their faith and
devotion.
"I received my notice to come out here so late
that there remained only just time to reach the
scene early enough to get the whole performance,
that is, that part which the uninitiated are per
mitted to witness.
"Arriving at Canyon Diabolo, a train stop on the
Santa Fe Railway,
with my photographic
very exciting place; there was
only the box-like station, the trading post store, and
a corral.
"I make my errand known to the owner of the
trading post; hire a pair of mules, and a light wagon
into which I put my junk. The storekeeper directs
me on my way thus: 'Keep a little east of north, and
before sundown you should reach the middle trading
post, where they will give you a fresh pair of mules.
You will find a trail most of the way.'
"With these instructions, and the mesa a hundred
miles away, I set out across the sandy waste, with
the hot sun getting hotter as the day advances. But
I reach the middle trading post just about sundown,
as the trader said I would. After a brief rest and
supper, a fresh pair of mules are hooked up for me,
and I start out again with the ominous import of
the trader's directions disturbing me: 'There is no
trail from here on,' he says, 'all sand; but if you
bear a little east of north you should be in sight of
the mesa by morning.'
traps.
I get off
It wasn't a
87
"I go on; the moon comes out and looks down on
lonesome me in a desert of sand, headed 'a little east
of north.' For a moment I am stricken with terror,
knowing that to get lost in this waste of sand meant
a lingering death. But, getting a grip on my courage
again, I relieve my fright by beating the mules into a
gallop for a mile.
stars smile and beckon
on, the course being laid between the north star
and the great dipper. All night I push ahead, and
as the gray dawn begins to faintly show in the eastern
sky, I unhitch the mules and let them feed out of the
wagon, while I roll up in a blanket, wriggle down
into the sand, and sleep. When I awake, the sun is
just showing, and I look ahead to see the welcoming
mesa, 'a little east of north.'
"And what a relief to discover that
navigation
has been 100 per cent correct. I had dreamed that I
"However, the friendly
me
my
was finding my way by compass, and that the com
pass had been acting in a most erratic fashion, point
ing this way and then that as though it was itself
lost so that finally I had decided to set it by the pole
star, as one might set a clock by sundial.
"But it was only a dream, and in my satisfaction
at finding everything all right I was tempted to lie
down again in that cozy nest in the sand, out of which
I had hustled when the rising sun had peeped at me
;
across the plain.
"There
tentment
is a feeling of unequaled peace and con
steals over one in the death-like quiet of
the desert. No city noise or other clamor of civiliza
tion disturbs the great quiet. I can almost hear my
pulse; not a sound except an occasional squeak from
the harness as the mules stand eating oats out of the
feed box of the wagon.
"Nor is there an interruption to the view as far
as the eye can see across that great sandy waste,
except the welcoming sight of the mesa ahead. It
reminds me of the purpose of my errand. I must
get going now without delay.
"Hitch
ing the
mules again
I am soon
at the foot
of this great
rock, a rock
perhaps
three miles
long and a
mile wide
at the wid
The Pueblo of Walpi
est place,
and
up out of the sand to a height about
that
of
the Washington Monument.
equal
"The first I meet here are two comely Hopi Indian
maidens who have come down to the spring to fill
their baskets with water, and which they will carry,
on their heads, to the top of the mesa. Yes, baskets,
'pitched' inside, I guess, as was the cradle of rushes
sticking
which Pharaoh's daughter found baby Moses
floating on the river when she came down for a swim
in
in the sacred Nile.
word by these
two Indian
young
to
come
and
carry my
boys
"I
sent
ladies for
luggage up. And presently
here they came, running
down the tortuous path, a
path so steep that it short
ened my breath in the climb.
But soon we reach the top,
and the village of Walpi;
and presently I find quar
ters with a young married
couple and their baby boy.
"Then I go about getting
'the lay of the land.'
The
people are moving here and
there with quickened step,
Hopi Indian
blanket loom
89
for there
is
the feel of ex
pectancy in the air,
like circus day back
much
home.
"I meet the old town-
who has just come
down from the housetop,
crier
where, in stentorian voice,
he had broadcast the news
of the day, which included,
I find out later, the arrival
of a visitor from the town
of the 'Great White
Father.'
The
old town-crier,
Walpis
daily newspaper
ing man,
He is an interest
this
old
town-
obviously quite intel
as an old boot.
a
as
wrinkled
but
with
face
ligent,
With stately mien he crosses the plaza, disappears
in a doorway, and, for the time, is lost to me.
"But let me tell you something about the place,
before I say more about the people. The houses are
made of adobe, that is, dried mud blocks, set up
on the flat top of the mesa; and are one, two and
three stories high, the roof of the house below being
the door yard of the next house above, all set back
from the precipitous edge to leave a plaza in front
of them; and this plaza is where the snake dance is
to take place.
"Each house of this composite dwelling is a sep
arate apartment,
crier,
owned
separately,
the
upper stories
reached by wooden
ladders set
of
up out
The woman
side.
the
household
owns all real estate,
passed down from
mother to daugh
ter in
tion.
each genera
all the
About
Ho pi
90
Indian apartment house
men
seem to own is the
jewelry they wear, and maybe
the burros which clutter up
folks
the place.
"But
this being a gala day,
native
is dressed in
every
extra gaudy colors.
The
Hopi maidens are wearing
their hair in whorls of shim
mering blackness above each
cheek.
Others wear their
hair in two ropes hanging
over their shoulders, the hall
A Hopi maiden's hair dress
mark of the married women.
The youngsters are the only ones not dressed in finery,
but as they are dressed in nothing else, perhaps they
have the best of it after all.
"The day passes quickly while I learn much from
these rather good-looking, and delightfully friendly
people of Tusayan. I get the old cobbler to measure
foot for a pair of moccasins; and the jeweler to
make me a bracelet out of silver dollars. Beads he
makes of dimes, burnished into hemispheres in the
my
of his hand, and the edges of pairs
welded to make spheres, as he squats before
palm
of
them
his tiny
charcoal fire, intensified by
blowing through the hollow
bone of an eagle's wing. A
young man shows me the Hopi's only weapon, the boom
erang; how it will return to
the thrower, and how they kill
jack rabbits with it. I join
the kachina chase, and am
permitted to capture the prize
by the purposeful clumsiness
of
my
betters.
"A
kisi,
or bower
tonwood branches, is
of cotset
up
on the plaza, near the houses.
A
Hopi matron's hair
dress
91
The sun
goes down, and a feeling
expectancy fills the
Visitors and natives gather
air.
on the house tops, and line the
plaza space next the house walls.
The big show begins just as the
sun disappears below the sandy
horizon.
"I had set up my camera in a
favorable location suggested by
of intensified
one of
and
wealth in silver jewelry and
buttons
am
my
all
newly made friends,
ready to 'shoot the
show.'
"Presently a devout old priest,
with grave tread, enters the kisi
with a bag of snakes, just come from participation
in the mysterious rites in the kiva below.
"Almost immediately the antelope priests make
their grand entry; in scanty attire, with painted
bodies, and with clanking tortoise shells tied to
Four times around the plaza they
their knees.
march, chanting as they go, to finish up in a line
on each side of the kisi, where, still chanting, they
mark time with their moccasined feet. These
antelope priests range in stature from full grown
to very small children.
a
men down
"Now
hush
falls
on
the spectators,
the moment of
the big event
has arrived.
And
here they
come, the
snake priests,
in
single file,
stately proces-
sion, their
white-striped
Corn grinding and baking
92
bodies undulating in unison and
time with their weird chant
Four times around they
ing.
in
go, in dignified progress, finally
to line
up facing the antelope
priests, their steps marking time
to the beat of the members of
the junior lodge they face.
"Suddenly the snake priests
break up into groups of three,
and one of them, the 'carrier,'
steps forward to receive his
first snake from the priest in
Basket weaving
the kisi.
Grasping the wrig
neck
and
he
gling reptile by
body
places it between
his teeth, shuts his eyes, and, guided by an attendant,
he begins the circuit of the plaza, the other at
tendant following close behind.
"Of course the snake resents this rough treatment,
and coils and uncoils himself about the carrier's
neck and arms, the while the attendant, with
feather-tipped stick, wards off a too intimate con
tact with the snake's fangs.
"The fourth time around,
the carrier drops the snake,
which immediately coils him
self and defiantly holds his
head erect ready to strike.
But that
is exactly what the
does
not permit. Tor
gatherer
the
snake with his
menting
feather-tipped stick, he soon
uncoils, when down swoops a
hand that snatches him from
the ground by a grip around
the neck. The snake is then
taken over to the antelope
priest line, to be held by one
of
them
Hopi snake dancers
93
until
wanted
again.
"Other threemember groups
low the
fol
first, in cor
responding order
and procedure, but
Hopi
notice
that the
poisonous rattlers
are always handed
to a full-grown an
telope priest, while
the harmless bullsnakes are given to
the younger ones to
I
priest in daily garb
hold.
chap received a big snake, more than
He had grasped his
twice the length of himself.
to him, and the
low
when
it
was
handed
too
prize
snake swinging its head about finally hits the little
fellow a bump on the nose. He drops the snake and
crying turns to his mother who is seated only a few
steps away. The mother coos and pets and praises
him until he again has courage enough to go stand
in the line and receive the snake from the gatherer,
who had instantly recaptured it when the snake had
dropped to the
"One
little
ground.
"I shall not
soon forget that
courageous
youngster as he
stood the sec
ond time in the
line, sniffling
to
be sure, but
holding onto
that snake with
a two-fisted
grip that fairly
choked the life
out of it.
I
Snake dancers and
94
visitors
"The incident brought to my mind, as I cranked
away at my camera, a scene of my own early child
hood, when another mother, following a similar
panic in her own little boy, had likewise soothed and
petted him, and finally persuaded him to go back
and stand in line again with his Sunday School class
and say his scripture verse. How very like we are,
after all, no matter what our dress, our color, or
degree of culture.
"But my attention is brought back with a snap
to the scene before me by a change in the pitch of
the chant. An old priest is sprinkling meal on the
plaza floor. He draws sacred figures therein with
a stick, steps back, and all the snakes are thrown
down onto the meal picture, a squirming mass.
"Then, at a signal, the priests dash at the writh
ing snakes, grab as many as they can, and race down
the mesa trails, out onto the sandy plain, to release
these messengers carrying prayers 'to those above*
for rain on the meager crops of the worshipers.
"Returning, all participants repair to the ledge
behind the pueblo where the women hand them
bowls of a powerful emetic. I can't describe it to
you, for I went right away from there.
"Then out onto the plaza women and girls bear
trays of food, and all join in a gorgeous feast, which
lasts until near midnight.
"I find myself getting hungry, and I ask my
hostess to grind, in her corn mill, for my supper
drink, some coffee beans I brought with me. The
mill is a sloping stone set in the floor, on which she
pours the coffee beans, and rubs them with another
stone until the grinding is completed.
"She gathers up the pulverized product with a
brush of coarse grass with which just a little while
before I had seen her sweep the dirt floor, and with
which earlier she had brushed her hair.
"In spite of this I liked the coffee she made, I
had to like it, as I did the corn bread she baked on the
stone stove-top, for I hadn't come there to starve.
95
"With my midnight supper over, I hung my coat
on the 'blanket pole' spanning the room, and lay
down to sleep on the wide dirt ledge running around
the room, a few inches higher than the floor.
"Next morning, after a breakfast, which is prac
my
supper of the night before,
tically a duplicate of
I prepare for
bill, and as I
departure. I pay
am
my
about to leave
am
my
presented with a saddle-
blanket of native weave and dye.
"My hunter of the day before presents me the
boomerang with which he killed the rabbit. He
assists another to carry my traps down the trail
and load them into the wagon; and I start my re
turn journey.
"The great bi-annual show is over, the Hopi
snake dance. The whole is an elaborate prayer for
It poured.
A dry
rain, and rain it did that night.
sink near the middle trading post was now a lake
around which
a
I
must detour.
"Eventually I reach the railroad again and board
train bound for the noise and confusion of civiliza
tion,
but with a feeling that I should
longer in the silence
and the
like to stay
solitude of that great
desert."
Back in Washington motion picture development
was again taken up. The early collection of motion
picture films largely consisted of elementary sub
jects, as has already been pointed out, and because
dancing girl subjects were so easily obtained, these
were frequently seen.
It was one of these subjects that was being pro
jected in the room of the Capital Bicycle Club, be
an audience of ladies and gentlemen, when some
thing went wrong with the machine. The light being
on, the picture continued on the screen as a single
lantern slide. While the young man was tinkering
with the balky machine, he heard a titter in the
audience, and looking at the screen, discovered that
the film had stopped just as one of the performers,
fore
96
who was
turning a
flip-
flop, had her nether ex
tremities stuck up in the
air in a very immodest
fashion. He put the light
out in a hurry.
It was about this time
that the young
man
turned author, writing
three books on the sub
ject of motion pictures,
in quick succession, all
which found a market
during the swaddling
of
clothes period of the
new
art.
Perhaps
the
turning
point came when he
Mrs. Grace Love Jenkins
married that wonderful
girl, "Miss Grace," who had endeared herself to
everyone by her sympathetic understanding and un
selfishness, winning the hearts and confidences of all
who came in contact with her. It is to her kindly
help and business wisdom, rather than to any per
sonal "genius," that this inventor attributes such
success as has attended his efforts.
The new home was set up in a very modest little
frame house, which was
bought on small monthly
payments, for the in
ventor was too poor to
rent the house, the rent
being $35 a month.
Many a time the end of
the month approached
without the cash in sight,
but before the end of the
last day the $25.50 pay
ment was always ready.
This situation was
A
typical inventor's
home
97
repeated so often it came to seem uncanny, and was
spoken of with almost reverential breath.
In 1898 Mr. Jenkins built the first horseless
carriage seen on the
___
.
m>
streets of
'TSi^Ml
iM
ton,
WashingD. C. It was
indeed a queer-look-
ing
contraption,
without springs,
steered with a
til
but with very
fancy upholstery.
ler,
i
About the most
^a^
that can be said of
this early horseless
First auto in Washington, 1898
carriage
is
that
it
had a wheel under
each corner, used steam as a source of power, and
would actually run. Its top speed might have been
eight
miles
per
hour,
perhaps,
when everything
worked fine. At any rate, it rarely had a speed which
would prevent the small boy from running rings
around it, and with a derisive thumb at his nose.
The steam generator was hardly larger than a
Nevertheless, the District Govern
large bucket.
ment insisted that a steam-boiler license must be
obtained before they would officially permit its op
eration on the streets. The opposing argument was
made that other mobile steam boilers were per
mitted in the city without licenses, namely, locomo
tives, and that it hardly seemed fair to require one
But a license was insisted
for this little teakettle.
upon, and so a steam-boiler license it had, this first
Washington automobile.
Other and better vehicles were built by Mr.
Jenkins, "horseless carriages" though they still re
mained, until finally a large car was constructed,
seating twenty passengers, the first sight-seeing bus,
doubtless. It was well made and driven by a double
compound steam engine. Individual chairs were
98
This horseless carriage
is
thought to be the
first
to
the hood in front.
99
have the engine under
100
intended for the passengers; but the financial backers
refused to put up any more cash, and so the car was
sold at auction by the holder of a note for a borrow
ing made thereon, and the car went to New York
City for sight-seeing service in Central Park and
Riverside Drive.
This inventor, like other pioneers in horseless
carriage development, went broke, but each con
tributed his bit, and set the goal stake a little farther
ahead, until ultimately the automobile came to such
a state of perfection that, with the slogan, "The most
transportation for the least money/' it made one of
our citizens the richest man in the world. And with
this undertaking was born a new business policy. A
policy of high wages and a superior product at the
lowest possible price. It was a revolutionary policy,
but it worked.
In 1900 Mr. Jenkins was asked to assist in the
defense of independent motion picture producers
who were being sued by the motion picture trust for
alleged patents infringement. Injunctions had been
secured against several of them, one of whom, the
M.
Company, had sent its director, players and
to Cuba to make motion pictures, to
avoid the injunction against making pictures in the
I.
P.
camera
man
United States.
Mr. Jenkins, from his experience, knowledge, and
the motion picture art, was able immediately
to supply a non -infringing camera. This camera was
brought before the Court to show that the plaintiffs
skill in
were not entitled to a broader interpretation of
their patents than the patents themselves disclosed.
And as the new camera seemed to establish this, the
injunctions were dissolved, and in due course the
Court rendered its decision, in the following language:
Quoting from C. C. A., 2nd Ckt., March 10, 1902,
Fed. 114, page 926, the Court said:
"The photographic reproductions of moving ob
jects, the production from the negatives of a series
of
pictures,
representing the
101
successive
stages
of
motion, and the presentation of them by an exhibit
ing apparatus to the eye of the spectator in such
rapid sequence as to blend them together and give
the effect of a single picture in which the objects
had been accomplished long before Mr.
Edison entered the field."
This decision set the infant industry free to grow
as its merit as a public entertainer might warrant,
are moving,
ultimately to become the most widely accepted
source of group entertainment ever known. To this
"dumb" show, speech, music and appropriate sounds
were later added, and often in all the gorgeous colors
of nature.
Many attempts were made to introduce
depth, i.e., stereoscopic relief, in the picture, but to
date no publicly-acceptable method has been found.
Within a few months, after taking over the re
sponsibility of financing a home, Mr. Jenkins began
the consideration of a more sanitary container for
the delivery of milk to families. The glass bottle
had, by that time, entirely superseded the milk-can
and hand-dipper to fill the pitcher or pan left on the
But
doorstep by the housewife the night before.
the glass bottle was often used for such unsanitary
purposes as to
cause Health
Bureau
heartily
Officials
to
en
courage the trial
of the proposed
new
single -serv
ice container.
As
designed
the new "bottle"
consisted of a
finally
spirally wound
cylindrical box
of paraffined pa
per,
with fixed
bottom, and
slip-cover top.
102
Automatic machinery was built to make the boxes
as a continuous process, which was recognized as the
only way it would be possible to make it if it was to
successfully compete with the multi-service glass
bottle.
The
glass bottles cost five dollars a hundred.
survey in several cities was then made to discover
the number of trips a Bottle averaged before it was
A
This was found to be ten trips. Ob
the
then,
single-trip paper box must sell at
viously,
And for three years it
five dollars per thousand.
was done. But the margin of sales price above the
total price was so very narrow that it was ultimately
decided to double the sales price and confine the
use of the box to articles selling for a much higher
unit price than milk; for example, ice cream, cottage
lost or
broken.
cheese, oysters,
and the
like.
This proved the practical
this particular receptacle,
field of usefulness for
and that
is
why you
find
handy boxes at your favorite grocery and drug
stores, a box made so well that the housewife saves
them for other uses, when emptied, and reluctantly
throws them away when too many accumulate about
these
the house.
When to sell a patent, if the invention is such that
a sale is best, is often of importance to the inventor.
For example, a ball bearing of a new type was de
signed; a patent secured thereon; and an offer of
$750 was received from a manufacturer of ball bear
The inventor held out for a higher price.
ings.
Very shortly thereafter the "ball-separator" or
"cage" bearing came out. It was better, and the
sale of the other ball bearing was now impossible.
In discussing this situation with his patent attor
ney the inventor was told of a similar case in trolley
At first the current collectors
car development.
ran on top of the trolley. Trouble was often en
countered at the cross-overs. The attorney's client
had invented an excellent device, and $300,000
was offered for the patent. The attorney urged him
103
it, but the inventor wanted "a million dol
While he waited, a patent was issued for the
now universally-used under-running trolley arm,
and the other patent was worthless; the inventor
could not sell it at any price. The conclusion seems
to be that when the inventor gets a fair price offer
he should take it.
The successful completion of an invention rarely
means the end of the mental worry. The inventor
may make a good sales arrangement, but this does
not always mean his troubles are over. Our hero
invented a milk-bottle capper. It was really a very
good bottle capper. He took the model and the
patent to a dairy machinery manufacturer in a
distant city. A deal was consummated whereby the
inventor was paid $10,000 in cash; to be followed by
a royalty of $2.50 on each capper sold. But time
passed and no royalties were received, nor could the
inventor get any answer to his inquiries. He then
turned the contract over to an attorney for action.
Later on it was discovered that the attorney was
crooked and had surrendered the contract for a cash
The conclusion
consideration which he pocketed.
civil attorneys
time
seems
to
be:
Select
honest
this
to take
lars."
as well as honest patent attorneys.
Both are
avail
able.
When, in 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt,
on the White House yacht, Mayflower, went down
the Potomac River to Hampton Roads to review the
battle fleet, Secretary Newberry of the Navy au
thorized the young man to take his motion picture
camera aboard the Navy tug put at the disposal of
photographers, on the usual arrangement that "cop
ies of all photographs made and of all the motion
pictures made" should be delivered free of cost to
the Navy.
It was a marvelous sight, that great parade of
fighting watercraft, and the motion picture con
tributed to a permanent record of fleet activities.
On the way home the value of motion pictures as
104
an educational means was discussed among the
pressmen, with the result that the inventor deter
mined to take a try at it. So he designed a projector,
especially adapted to the new service, fire safety
being particularly emphasized. On the test by fire
authorities, its fire safety features being demon
strated, this particular machine was approved for
This advantage
the usual booth.
of
the
the
usefulness
machine, for
greatly enlarged
similar action was taken in several states and quite
a number of cities.
The inventor set up a corporation to exploit
the new machine, and in the first year, the year of
its introduction, ten times more business was done
in the territory covered than by all competitors
combined. With this claim proved, buyers for the
patents of the little corporation were easily found,
a new corporation set up, and a skilled merchandizer put at the head of it.
Mr. Jenkins was then again free to follow new
research and invention on his own account.
A new usefulness was proposed for the motion
use
without
A
picture camera, namely, undersea pictures.
water-tight chamber to contain the camera and
operator with a free air tube leading to the surface.
In the end of the chamber a thick glass window was
set, through which the camera lens looked, and
another such window through which the camera man
sighted his aquatic
subjects. The ver
tube pro
vided equalized air
pressure from the
surface, with a
tical air
gentle
circulation
a
small blower. The
scheme, in one
modification or an
provided by
other, has been in
Undersea motion pictures
105
The Graphoscope;
first
motion picture projector designed exclusively
educational use.
106
for
PH
0)
H
107
use ever since.
It is believed to be capable of greatly enlarged
For example,
usefulness in wrecking operations.
controlled
the
switches
by
through
operator in the
under water chamber, grappling hooks, scoops,
magnets, and the like, could be handled in almost
exactly the
same way the crane man now operates
circumstances.
Salvage operations
open
could then be carried on as a continuous process,
the chamber being held to the iron sides of the ship
by magnets at the end of extended arms, for example.
But when the physician, in 1910, said that the
inventor must immediately take a rest or his life
span would end within six months, Mr. Jenkins, ac
companied by Mrs. Jenkins, put the wheels of his
automobile in the ocean at Atlantic City. Then
heading westward, he continued toward the setting
sun until the same wheels rolled through the surf
running over the white sands of the Pacific coast.
Many days after leaving the Atlantic coast the
car drew up beside a concrete post the cross-arm
1733
of which read: "1733 miles to San Francisco;
miles to Boston," with arrows pointing west and
After reading the inscription Mrs.
pointing east.
Jenkins exclaimed: "Do you mean to say that we
are only halfway across?" But it did not matter,
for by that time the trek had become an enjoyable
in
air
vacation.
Varied experiences were encountered in this first
trans-continental automobile crossing of our country.
In many places, no roads of any kind, not even
trails; past homesteads with a single barbed wire
enclosing the ranch, and, sometimes, on a board
hanging to the wire where the loose end was wrapped
around a post, the forceful admonition:
you,
shut the gate."
Discoveries new to the tourists were made almost
Just before reaching Medicine Bow the car
daily.
traveled a road at the foot of an oyster-shell moun
tain. This mountain had once been a dimple in the
'
108
ocean floor. But a geological upheaval of long ago
had turned this dimple over, leaving it a mole on
the face of the plain, three thousand feet above
present sea level and a thousand miles from shore.
At the end of another day's driving the car rolled
into Salt Lake City, over the last 75 miles of the old
Mormon
the
trail.
Chamber
At the banquet given the
of
Commerce a few
tourists
by
nights later, an
inscription was read on the bleached forehead of a
"Made
buffalo skull (in a glass case), as follows:
fifteen miles today. All well. Brigham Young."
Another day the car was stopped beside a similar
buffalo skull, with one horn stuck in the sandy
gravel of the plain to hold it in place. Upon the flat
of the skull was scrawled:
"Water twenty paces,"
and underneath, an arrow pointing to a pool of that
lifegiving treasure often scarcer than gold in that
arid territory.
In
due time the
car, crossing the Californiastate line at Lake Tahoe, rolled down the
side of the range to Sacramento to spend the
Nevada
sunny
before reaching San Francisco and the
few days later the trip was con
tinued southward to Los Angeles, where, dipping
the wheels in the Pacific, the first transcontinental
tourists' tour ended in a glorious uproar.
The car had been initially fitted with knobby tread
tires, the first of their kind, and replaced with the
same kind as often as required. The knack of vul
last night
Pacific Ocean.
A
canizing tires with knobs had not yet been mastered
by the makers, so that they were rather easily de
tached by souvenir hunters when the car stood un
attended on the streets of Pacific coast cities. But
this destruction of the tires was accepted philosoph
ically as a part of the penalty of the pioneering game.
Motion pictures and "stills" were made on the
trip, a record both entertaining and useful as the
study of transcontinental automobile roads became
more and more acute.
Returning to Washington, and resuming the study
109
motor cars, it seemed obvious to Mr. Jenkins that
as automobiles came more and more into use, and
particularly as larger engines with more cylinders
of
built, some self-starter means must be provided.
the larger cars it took a good, husky man to
crank the engines; ladies were barred. The first
application was a self-starter which Mr. Jenkins had
invented a year previously, development of which
was interrupted by the Ocean -to-Ocean trip. He
tried it out successfully on a four-cylinder car, and
then, for demonstration, bought one of the best of
the few six-cylinder cars then available and similarly
equipped that. It was found, as expected, that
Mrs. Jenkins could operate this car as easily as a
man could. So a tour of the few six-cylinder car
manufacturers was planned, to sell them the idea of
the new self-starter, and to license its use by them.
But the demonstration car had only reached
were
On
Philadelphia when parties were found who wanted
The sale was con
to buy the patents outright.
a
of
the
summated, though part
agreement provided
for the completion of the tour as originally planned,
with a representative of the new owner as a passenger.
Incidentally, an additional value was found for the
self-starter when the engine was accidentally "killed"
on a very bad mud road. To have started the engine
without the new starter would have meant getting
down in that "muddy mud" to crank the motor.
Those involved thanked the new invention for its
never-failing aid in a bad situation.
About this time the study of airplane possibilities
was begun; of course, from a layman's point of view.
Applications for patents were filed on various "im
Many of the patents were issued
provements."
before the inventor had ever been up in an airplane.
Later, the result of a study of the flying machine
from closer contact, kindred knowledge in other arts,
and subsequent experiences as a pilot, disclosed that
many of these patented ideas are foolish and im
The trouble lay, of course, in the fact
practical.
no
that the conclusions were drawn from the limited
knowledge of the man on the ground, in ignorance
of the entirely new phenomena involved in an air
plane in flight, and hardly to be guessed by an en
gineer, the lever fulcrum of whose reasoning rested
on the ground, or at least something more substantial
than a baby's breath. Just as an illustration: how
many of us knew in 1912, and how few know now,
that 75 to 80 per cent of the lift of an airplane comes
from the air which passes over the top of the wings ?
The beginning
of
war
Europe, which later came
in
to be designated as "the
World War,"
started the
in
our
case
we
should be
study
preparedness
drawn into the conflict in defense of our own security.
The use of motion picture cameras aboard air
planes was one of the subjects involved, and Mr.
Jenkins was called on for such assistance as he might
be able to render.
But as his standard motion picture camera must
be modified to best adapt it to work from the unstable
base of an airplane, the inventor began his first
series of test "hops" aboard Navy bomber planes
not long after Kaiser Wilhelm started out to con
quer the world singlehanded.
The first move was to overcome the wobbly effect
of
which would appear in reproductions of motion
made aboard flying machines.
"Still"
pictures
pictures,
i.e.,
cessfully be
"snapshots" pictures, could very suc
planes, of course, but motion
made from
pictures could not.
So two methods to hold the camera steady were
The first consisted in mounting the camera
on a heavy leather belt buckled around the waist
of the cameraman as he stood in the gunner's cockpit
aboard the plane. It was quite successful, and many
excellent movies were made over Washington with
tried.
this
arrangement.
The
method tried consisted in hanging the
a compass bearing frame and loading it
with a pendulum weight so that the wobble of the
camera
other
in
ill
ship would have little effect on the camera because
of the inertia residing in the heavy pendulum. The
resultant pictures were quite satisfactory.
further modification was later made in the
camera itself, a continuous movement of the film
being substituted for the usual intermittent move
ment. The film was drawn across a very narrow
transverse slit. The traveling lens-image at the slit
is an image of the terrain being flown over.
And as
the movement of the film is adjusted to approximate
the movement of the ground image at the slit, sharp
pictures are made. The result is a panorama picture
of the course flown, an inch wide and two hundred
A
feet long.
This panorama picture film is about an inch to
the mile at suitable elevations. The usual length of
a motion picture film for the same 200 miles would
be about 15,000 feet long, or a ratio of advantage in
cost of the new to the old method of approximately
one hundred and fifty times.
These tests in airplane flights showed the inventor
the opportunities, outside of motion pictures, for
offense and defense, residing in the plane.
Some
suggestions were found useful and were adopted by
our military forces, though none of them issued as
patents until after the war. The government's rule
on inventions of war usefulness decreed,
that
however,
applications thereon should not be
issued during the war period, and so applications
were tied up in the Patent Office for action later.
Before the entrance of the United States into the
World War, the motion picture interest had begun
to feel the inconvenience and handicap of the ab
sence of standards.
Efforts were made to form
standards committees within the industry itself, but
all such attempts were fruitless, principally because
of a lack of mutual confidence in the integrity of
purpose of competing interests. It looked as though
this plan could not be made to work out successfully,
so Mr. Jenkins decided to form a society of standardof secrecy
112
izing engineers on his own responsibility. Returning
from the last of these previously fruitless attempts,
he sent telegraphic invitations to engineer friends
to meet him in Washington for the purpose. Thir
teen came, and the Society of Motion Picture Engi
neers was organized and incorporated. Mr. Jenkins
was selected president, but for some time he found
holding the membership together a difficult task
because of the skepticism resulting from the failure
of all such previous efforts at standardization.
But hard work and member confidence in the in
tegrity of the founder maintained the solidarity of
the organization through the crucial period, and at
this writing, the Society of Motion Picture Engineers
has a world-wide membership, and its recommenda
tions are accepted by the industry as though they
were enforcible orders.
The Society will never compare in membership
with the numbers enrolled in other similar societies,
for example, the Society of Automotive Engineers,
because of the relatively limited number of en
There are but
gineers involved in the industry.
three manufacturers of theatre motion picture pro
jectors in this country, while there are hundreds of
manufacturers of automobiles, motor boats, and flying
machines, and employing thousands of engineers.
But as color and sound were added to the motion
picture the development in related arts was ap
plicable, and so new groups of engineers were added
to the initial photographic talent involved.
En
gineers are now enrolled in the Society from some
of the largest industries of our nation, and its ac
cumulated store of information so attractive that the
membership
is
now
universal.
When
the United States joined the defenders of
the peace of the world, the new society of motion
picture engineers found that its standardization had
anticipated a forced standardization, and was, there
more useful because
izing service.
fore,
it
113
was ready with standard
The portable projector, the Graphoscope, pre
viously designed for school use, proved to be ad
mirably adapted for use in cantonments and aboard
troop ships, and thousands of them were put to
Three
entertaining and instructing the soldiers.
were used aboard the U. S. S. George Washington
which carried President Woodrow Wilson to France,
and back again to his home country.
Mr. Jenkins volunteered for this and such other
service as the government might find for him, and
ultimately was sent his "dollar-a-year" check, follow
ing the wild scenes of Armistice Day and its re
lease from the pent up sorrow and terror of the un
known.
During the war activities the inventor had seen
the need for a simple, single piece device which would
give to a stationary beam of light impinging on one
side of it an oscillating motion on the emergent side,
and as soon as released for independent work again,
the discovery of such a device was undertaken.
This research resulted in the invention of the pris
matic ring, a new shape in glass, a new contribution
to optical science.
A ray or beam of light incident on the ring from
a fixed point is given an oscillating motion on the
emergent side of the ring in rotation. It is compar
able to a solid glass prism which changes the angle
between
its sides.
The
prismatic ring was found very valuable in
mechanisms for the transmission of photographs by
radio, as will be explained later; and in a directAs the
reading ground speedometer for airships.
ring becomes better known doubtless many other
uses will be found therefor.
Some time after the signing of the Armistice Mr.
Jenkins wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Navy
requesting the privilege of purchasing a flying boat
from the Navy surplus supply in store at Hampton
Roads. Presenting the letter to Assistant Secretary
Franklin D. Roosevelt, and after some pleasant
114
banter about the danger of flying, the letter was
That evening Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins took
initialed.
the night boat to Old Point Comfort. After break
fast they crossed the Roads to the Navy storehouse
where a flying boat was selected, this being the first
intimation Mrs. Jenkins had had of the object of
the journey. But the only criticism she made was:
"I hope we will not regret having bought it." Later
she repeatedly rode in that same flying machine, and
enjoyed it, for Mr. Jenkins flew these boats, i.e.,
this boat and its three successors, for eight years
without a single mishap of any kind whatever.
When this first flying machine was taken out of its
30-foot boxes, it was successfully assembled by
following the blue prints which accompanied it. A
check-up by Lt. Edw. W. Rounds, a Navy test pilot,
was requested, and instructions in flying it. But this
latter request was not favorably received.
"You
are too old," the lieutenant advised; "y u must
"I am past fifty," Mr. Jenkins
be nearly fifty."
replied,
"but
I
am
familiar with the principles in-
involved, and shall fly it intelligently." The pilot
thought a moment and then said: "All right, if you
will promise, on your honor, not to solo until you
have been up with me for twenty flying hours." To
which Mr. Jenkins replied: "I will promise not to
take my first solo without your consent." In twelve
hours the instructor's consent was given, and plans
were made for the momentous event. With friends
in a motor boat as "official observers," one of whom
was the instructor's sweetheart, and others a boy
friend and his sweetheart, with Mr. Jenkins' me
chanic operating the motor boat, all was ready.
After a few minutes in the air with the instructor,
the plane was brought down on the water, and the
motor boat moved up to it. The instructor goes over
side and his place is taken by a bag of gravel so that
the balance of the plane might not feel unnatural
to the student.
The motor boat backs away, and Mr. Jenkins
115
116
5
so
I
3
E
03
>
.S
117
The
prismatic ring can be rotated to follow any moving object
a
motion
e.g.,
picture film; or if fitted with a high-reading automo
bile speedometer the speed of an airplane or dirigible can be read
directly off a dial
;
by the navigating
118
officer.
Every normal man
instinctively seeks a recreational activity
hunting, fishing, riding, tennis, golf. The author's relaxation
from research work
is
flying
an airplane
sport.
119
and
it's
delightful
"gives her the gun"; the plane skims along the water
surface for a hundred yards or so, and then gracefully
lifts, to sail around as obediently as before; and his
first solo flight had passed into personal history.
Through the courtesy of Lieut. Col. C. O. Sherrill,
U. S. public buildings and grounds, and
successor Lieut. Col. U. S. Grant, 3rd,
permission was given Mr. Jenkins to change passen
gers from the sea wall of Haines Point, one of Wash
friend would be taken
ington's playgrounds.
aboard and the plane headed out into the river by
persons running along the wall and pushing on the
in charge of
later his
A
When out in the river, Mr. Jenkins would
tip.
stand up on the seat, give the motor crank a pull,
and the motor never failed to start. This was made
possible by a little "jigger" which Mr. Jenkins had
put on the motor, although before that it required
three men to turn the motor over with snap enough
to make it fire. Having started the motor he would
drop down into the seat, fasten the safety belt, and
wing
they were
off.
was not always understood by onlookers that
it was only friends who were taken up, and no fare
charged. This sometimes resulted in comedy situa
tions, as when the dear old lady handed her hat to a
friend saying she would go next.
Unfortunately,
she could not be taken, though she said she "would
be willing to wash his clothes for a year if only Mr.
Jenkins would take her up."
Soon after beginning to solo Mr. Jenkins found
that flying was much more restful than automobiling,
for there was no anxiety of collision, and the mo
notonous drone of the motor tended to clear the mind
It
for straight thinking.
On
one such flying trip down the river, at a point
above Mount Vernon, perhaps two thou
in the air
sand feet, there flashed into his mind the solution of
a camera problem which had baffled him for many
years, namely, from the time, 1894, when he had
received his patent thereon.
120
The camera was what Mr. Jenkins
christened a
a time-stretching camera.
Two hundred feet of film runs through the camera
per second, and thirty-two hundred exposures are
made thereon in that brief time; namely, sixteen
exposures per foot of film, with each exposure located
thereon with such microscopic exactness that when
Chronoteine camera,
i.e.,
prints from this negative were made and projected
in a theatre machine the resultant screen picture
was clear and steady. This reduction rate is 200
times slower than the time of the original perform
ance itself, enabling the human eye to see things it
had never before been able to see.
The last problem was to prevent the ignition and
destruction of the film if it touched anything when
running through the camera, which it did at a rate
above two miles a minute. Of course, it was neces
sary to hold the film with extreme accuracy in the
exact focus of the 2-inch photo lenses used.
The
slightest wobble at this point would cause blurred
And yet how could the film be held so
pictures.
exactly without touching it?
It was this problem the solution of which was
found a half mile up in the air over Washington's
tomb. The solution was almost self -suggesting when
it was remembered that anything moving rapidly
through the air attracts to its surface a skin of air
which is dragged along with it. Thus if the film
should be pulled down through a narrow channel in
the focus of the lens, the skin of air clinging to the
two sides of the film would hold the film in the exact
focus of the lenses. And that is the way it worked
out in practice.
This Chronoteine camera is unique, the only
camera ever made which will run film therethrough
at such high speed and successfully record pictures
thereon with only summer sunshine for illumination.
Perhaps the most noteworthy pictures made with
this camera were the now famous "pigeon pictures"
which disclosed that birds do not manipulate their
121
flight as had previously been believed.
Another interesting series of pictures were those
made in 1930 of Bobby Jones, the golf champion,
and which surprisingly disclosed to Bobby that he
played golf differently from the way he taught it.
These same Bobby Jones pictures also visually
proved that there is a perceptible time interval be
tween the moment an image falls on the human eye
and its pictorial reception on the brain.
In 1921 the Jenkins Laboratories was set up and
incorporated to develop radio movies to be broad
A staff of
cast for entertainment in the home.
was
men
and
ladies
gotten
together,
young
young
each selected for latent talent capable of being di
A
rected to the particular development planned.
new building, fortunately, was found in the better
section of Washington, and an intensive attack on
the problem of visual radio was undertaken.
In less than a year such success was attained that
wings in
demonstrations of the transmission of "still" photos
could confidently be made for friends who happened
in unannounced.
Among those much appreciated
visitors was Henry D. Hubbard, Secretary of the
Bureau of Standards, who predicted that "motion
pictures also will be similarly transmitted soon."
Later, photographs were transmitted over the
city telephone system to the Navy radio station at
Anacostia, and there put on the air. These photos
were received in northwest Washington in the pres
ence of Dr. A. Hoyt Taylor, of the Navy Research
Laboratories, and J. C. Edgerton, radio officer of
the Post Office Department, each of whom kept as
souvenirs examples of the photos received.
First the
Tracing the process is interesting.
photograph was analyzed in a machine which, in
successive lines, translates its light values into elec
These variations of current repre
tric current.
senting picture values were then translated into
sound in an earphone, which latter, held to the
mouthpiece of the telephone on Mr. Jenkins' desk,
122
changed the sound back into current. This modu
lated current then passed through two telephone
exchanges, and at the receiver in the radio station
in Anacostia was changed back into sound and then
At Mr.
into radio signals which were broadcast.
Jenkins' home a radiovisor picked the signals out of
the air and changed them back into the original
light values, which in turn were recorded photo
graphically. It was indeed an interesting succession
of transpositions, but was very successfully done.
Later in the same year, 1922, a public demonstra
tion was put on for friends in the Navy, who came
to the Laboratory to see it done Admirals Robinson
Ziegemeier, Captains Tomkins and Foley,
A portrait
S. C. Hooper, and others.
of Secretary Denby was transmitted from Navy
radio station NOF, in Anacostia, and received in
the Washington Laboratory, in the presence of these
The picture was reproduced in the
gentlemen.
Washington Star with a write-up of the event.
and
Commander
With such surprisingly good radio-photo results
the Navy officials continued their generous aid in
further experiments, and on March 3, 1923, radiophotos of President Warren G. Harding, Secretary
of Commerce Herbert Hoover, Governor of Pennsyl
vania Gifford Pinchot, and others were radioed from
NOF to a receiver set up in the Evening Bulletin
building, Philadelphia, by courtesy of Mr. Robert
Some of the pictures were reproduced in
a special 5 o'clock edition of March 3.
McLean.
Laboratory experiments were continued looking
to the refinement of apparatus and methods, and
later hundred-line radio-photos were made of Presi
dent Calvin Coolidge, Dr. J. S. Montgomery, Chap
lain of the U. S. House of Representatives, Hon.
William Jennings Bryan, and others.
Still
later
in
the year a message in Japanese
by Charge d' Affairs I. Yoshida, of the
Japanese Embassy, Washington, addressed to the
captain of a warship then in Boston Harbor was
characters
123
This and succeeding pages are examples of photographs received
by radio from a distance, by the Jenkins system, some of them from
Washington to Philadelphia, and represent the best work done in
1922, 1923, and 1924.
124
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASH' NGTON
December 5,1922.
Dear Mr .Jenkins:
Please accept my thanks for the
radio photograph which you were good
enough to send to me.
The production
of a picture in this fashion is cer
tainly one of the marvels of our time
and
I
am under obligation to you for
sending me this handsomely mounted
copy which will be preserved as a very
much prized souvenir.
Gratefully yours,
.Francis Jenkins
1519 Connecticut Avenue
Ifir .0
Washington ,D.G
.
125
126
127
128
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
WASHINGTON
February 1,1924
Mr. G. Francis Jenkins,
1519 Connecticut Avenue,
Washington ,D .0
.
Dear Mr -.Jenkins
:
I
wish to express my
appreciation for the photograph which
you so kindly sent me.
It represents
a very startling development in radio
and sometime when
I
have some leisure
I
would be interested in discussing
the method with you
.
Yours faithfully,
129
130
HARRI5BURG
October 23, 1923.
Mr. C. Francis Jenkins,
5502 Sixteenth Street,
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. Jenkins:
My heartiest thante for your letter
of October 17th and for the coj$r of my first
photograph by radio. I appreciate it more than
I can easily say, and think it is a perfectly
marvelous piece of .work under the circumstances.
Also it is more than pleasant to have' it from
you, in view of our long association, and so
beautifully mounted.
With renewed appreciation, and heartiest
thanks for all the trouble you took in getting it
Sincerely
131
132
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
V L.LA
I
SERENA
MIAMI. FLORIDA
July 29,1924.
Mr .c .Franc is Jenkins,
1519 Connecticut Avenue,
Washington^
.0
.
Dear Mr .Jenkins:
I
thank you for the Radio Pho
tograph--it is wonderful! What is
there left to be discovered?
Appreciating your friendly
interest,
I
am,
Very truly yours
133
,
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY
In Reply Refer to
WEST LYNN, MASS.
November 28,1922.
.0 .Francis Jenkins
1519 Connecticut Ave.,
Mr
Washington
,
,D .0
.
Dear Mr .Jenkins:
I am in receipt of yours of
November 25th, enclosing the radio pic
It cer
ture, for which I thank you.
a
successful
result
shows
tainly
When I first read of your pris
matic ring arrangement in the "Scien
I recognized that it
tific American
was the solution of a problem which I
had often thought of as possible, and
I can well understand that it may have
applications which we do not even now
think of. It is perfectly possible, as
you say, to employ the method of radio
transmission of pictures on a very con
siderable scale, which would hardly be
possible in transmitting them by the
ordinary telegraph.
11
,
With best regards, and grati
fication to know that you are progres
sing, I am.,
Very truly yours
134
,
THE FRANKUN
INSTITUTE
OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA
PHILADELPHIA
March
Mr .Francis Jenkins,
5502 -Sixteenth Street
Washington
,D .0
,N .W
. ,
*
My dear Mr .Jenkins:
I want to say to you how
delighted I was to receive your letter of
March 6th, accompanied by, the beautiful
examples of your success in transmitting
photographs by radio. I enjoyed very de
cidedly the opportunity that you gave me
of seeing the process of receiving these
pictures and have found since that a num
ber of those whose attention I called -to
your work, took advantage of the opportu
nity and were greatly pleased with the
results
.
I can only say that I
appreciate to a certain extent, at least,
the tremendous energy and persistence that
you have put into the development of this
new. .art and most heartily congratulate you
on the success that you have obtained
.
I
am promising myself
that if I come to Washington at any time
in the near future to make a visit to your
laboratory and see you in your own private
lair. Hoping that such an opportunity
will not be too long delayed. I am,
Sincerely yours
S. and A.
135
Assistant
,
136
Japanese and Chinese messages can be sent in native
characters only
by
visual radio.
137
transmitted
courtesy
of
by Mr. Jenkins, again through the
the Navy, from station NOF, near
Washington, to the Amrad station, WGI, at Medford Hillside, Mass. It was received at night and
through the worst static condition of the year. The
message was readable though covered with "static
tracks." The message was reproduced in the Boston
Traveler the following day.
This same apparatus was then set up on the Post
with one transmitter-receiver located
at Omaha and the other at Iowa City, a section of
the night-flying air-mail route from New York to
San Francisco. The first message, a hand-written
Office airways
message, was put through the night of December 15,
1923. A few days thereafter Col. Paul Henderson,
Second Assistant Postmaster, called Mr. Jenkins
advising that General Lord, head of the Federal
Budget Bureau, had told him that there was no
appropriation out of which such experiments could
be paid for, and they must stop. They stopped;
and the young men came home for Christmas.
In August, 1923, Mr. Jenkins went to Omaha as
the guest of Col. Paul Henderson, then Second
Assistant Postmaster General, to watch, for an ex
citing week, the experiment of carrying mail by air
plane at night.
The flying field had been established at Fort
Crook, some ten miles out of town. An automobile
carried the officers to and from the hotel. And no
one attempted to conceal a feverish interest in the
possibilities which would be opened to the United
States mail, directly, and aviation development in
directly, by a successful conclusion of the courageous
venture.
Of those who were in attendance, some came be
cause they had designed the field-lighting system, or
the beacon equipment and course markers which
stretched their winking chain from Chicago to
Cheyenne across the black prairie. Others, like
Glenn L. Martin, the airplane builder, to watch the
138
of the flying equipment, and still
Mr. C. Townsend Ludington, of Phila
delphia, with no immediate interest, perhaps, but
who may have been studying the feasibility of the
New York Philadelphia Washington passenger air
line which he later established (1930), and which was
so well thought out in advance that it broke all
passenger-carrying records from the take-off of the
very first ship. And there was Col. I.E. Dains, come
simply to see his friend succeed 100 per cent in what
performance
others like
called a very doubtful experiment.
a table in headquarters the night mail route
had been marked by a tape, to represent the course
from one terminal to the other. As the reports of
the passing of the ships were received from observa
tion stations color -headed pins would be moved from
point to point along the tape. Observing the advance
of these pins the excited watchers followed the move
ment of the eastbound and westbound mail through
the night.
As each approached Omaha, the mid
of
point
flight, all would tumble into the automobile
and hasten to the field.
The party would be no more than outside the city
boundary before the night -piercing beam of the ro
tating beacon would be seen sweeping across the sky.
Arriving at the field, everyone began watching toward
the east and toward the west for the tiny wing lights
which each plane carried.
Presently from the beacon tower platform would
come a voice "Mail," followed by excited field
The big beacon light was turned off; the
activity.
field flood-lights turned on; and the mail truck made
ready to run out to receive the Omaha mail when
the plane came in. Then presently out of the dark
into the field would glide this new thing, the nightflying mail, with all the importance of a living soul.
Whether the west-bound or the east-bound mail
came in first could not always be determined, so
nearly exactly were the flying times. But many a
calculating glance at the wind-sock was made in an
many
On
139
which plane would have an opposing
head wind and which a helpful tail wind. But
whether the east or west -bound plane got in first
made little difference, for almost before one realized
it the mail was unloaded and reloaded in the waiting
plane which had already been warming up. The
cockpit straps were buckled, the engine "reved" up,
and then down across the field, up, and away into
effort to predict
the night the mail speeded bearing its messages
of love and cheer, or only of prosaic business.
The show was over, and the auto radiator cap
pointed toward town and sleep, to dream of those
pioneers cleaving the dark night toward opposite
ocean shores.
The experiment of carrying the mail on night
flights now having been completed, and 100 per cent
perfect, demonstrating its entire practicability, all
Colonel Henderson,
eyes were turned homeward.
that
the
official
would
start for home
explaining
party
train
that
asked
Mr.
Jenkins
if he would
by
nighh
back
with
the
or
did
he
go
party
prefer to go back
as
far
as
His
selection of the
by plane
Chicago.
did
not
Colonel
Henderson,
who,
plane
surprise
in
Mr.
Jenkins's
had
knowing
delight
flying,
already
arranged for one of the pilots to earn- him into
Chicago next morning. The trip can be no better
described than it was in a letter to Mrs. Jenkins,
written that night in Chicago.
"Hopping off from Fort Crook field about nine
o'clock, the plane held a compass course for Chicago,
4,000 feet up and a hundred miles an hour with al
most monotonous rhythm over this level country.
"But suddenly the big Liberty motor cuts out. In
stantly the pilot swings the dead plane around on one
wing, over a house and barn, low over an orchard,
and sets it down in a pasture lot without a jar. An
investigation soon discloses that the gasoline had
water in it, gasoline bought at a distant field the day
before by one of the *joy hoppers.*
"Hardly was the plane on the ground until visitors
pour into tin- field from every -ide. Daddy
-traw hat. and overalls stuck in hightop hoots,
driving the 'tin Lizzie,' and with mother in >unbonnet and apron on th<- hack seat, and Mary and
Johnnie -landing on running hoard- holding onto
But the farmers' telephone- are not
the bows.
permitted lon^-di-tance conneetion-. so the pilot
and Mr. Jenkins accept a kindly farmer'- offer to
carry them to a nearby town where Omaha can be
asked to send another plane. The fanner hurries
his guests back to the disabled plane*, with his auto
skittering this way and that over the ^rea-\- surface
of a muddy road, for it had been raining the night
before. The pilot, who had just had a forced landing
as a part of the day's hazard, looks with anxiety
-r and
at his fellow p.
whispers: 'He is going to
kill us yet.'
"But they arrived unharmed, and gossip with
the neighbors in the shadow of the airplane wings
\><
M'nn 1o
in
-
suddenly a boy jumps up and, pointing into
Hut some
western sky, cries: There he is.'
had
for
his
doubted,
sharp eyes
picked up that tiny
before
his
elders could see it.
much
in
the
sky
speck
Soon the pilot 'dipped' his ship to advise the
down plane pilot that he was seen. So the cows
and horses were driven to one side of the pasture,
and the automobiles brought in close, so that the
pilot could have plenty of room to get down alongside the cripple.
The pilot -mechanic got out frith
a grin on his face: I know what's the matter, there's
water in the gas. Take this ship and get on in. Bill
and I will filter your gas, and hop off in an hour for
home.' So changing baggage to the other plane it
wa- -oon in the air IK aded for Chicago.
"Colonel Henderson had asked the pilot to point
out to me a particular beacon tower. As he passed
he shook the plane, by kicking the rudder bar, to
call his passenger's attention, and then pointing to
the tower; another way of getting attention amid
the pounding roar of the motor exhaust.
until
the
4
141
is the longest air trip I have taken to this
and
time,
forcibly impressed me with the stupendous
possibilities of a roadway unlimited in direction; for
which no right-of-way must be bought, no grading
done, no bridges built, and no curves to straighten
"It
or grades to level.
"But presently the roar of the motor stopped and
the plane glides to a landing in the Chicago airmail
field.
The trip is finished, the transportation lesson
learned, emphasized when, on reaching the hotel, it
is found that Colonel Henderson and his party has
not yet arrived."
In September Mr. Jenkins was invited to join a
visitors' and observers' party aboard the IT. S. S.
St. Mihiel to witness the experiment of sinking a
by airplane bombs. At the Arsenal dock
the party went aboard this old transport ship.
Among those going, and still much in the public eye,
was Gen. John A. Pershing. Other well known
personages were Major Gen. M. M. Patrick and
Rear Admiral W. A. Moffit. Altogether there were
too many to attempt a listing. The ship cast off her
mooring lines late in the afternoon, and early next
morning, in Hampton Roads, the Assistant Secretary
of War joined the party.
The trip was indeed an
eventful one, perhaps no better told here than by
quoting from a letter Mr. Jenkins wrote Mrs.
Jenkins while aboard.
"Well, I've just seen a big battleship shot down.
To be sure it was an antiquated old tub, but she
looked big and formidable as she rode at anchor while
the planes flew overhead, 10,000 feet up and looking
very small indeed. But watching intently one could
see the bombs released, and could follow each all
the way down, about 10 seconds usually. They shot
all morning at the New Jersey anchored about five
miles south of Diamond Shoals light-ship, off the
North Carolina coast, placing the bombs all around
her, with spouting geysers of water following each
explosion. Finally the order was given to 'Sink her.'
battleship
142
We
were all extra alert then, for this was the big
show. The next bomb struck squarely amidships,
with a great cloud of black smoke and debris, for it
tore up her decks, knocked down both lattice masts
and funnels. In fact, her whole upper structure was
shot away. Our boat then steamed toward her from
our location about two miles away. However, before
we got very close in, she listed badly, and soon turned
over completely. She then began to settle by the
stern, water spouting out of the holes in her hull,
and soon went under. We steamed over her grave
in a great oil slick which marked the spot.
"Those of us who watched her go down were silent
and rather awed, I think. I know I felt as though
she hadn't been given a sporting chance, but, like
Edith Cavell, she had been cruelly and unfairly shot
down. A foolish feeling, of course, but a sensation
of resentment came over me as she went under.
It
didn't seem quite sportsmanlike.
"The attack on the Virginia was practically a
General
repetition of that on the New Jersey.
Mitchell's men seemed to put the bombs exactly
where orders directed. The only difference I noticed
was that the bomb which sank the Virginia struck
on the forward deck, but her fate was just as de
I think it was the
finitely determined by the shot.
general conclusion that a battleship has little chance
to successfully defend herself against a fleet of air
planes.
over, and we are steaming toward
had troubled dreams last night, dreams of
And some two
again seeing the bombs strike.
seconds later a shudder would pass over our ship,
to be followed eight or ten seconds later by a 'boom,'
which indicated we were two miles away; about the
same distance from the target as the bombing planes
were above it. When I awoke the dream seemed as
real as the reality of the day's work itself.
"But after breakfast my friend, Mr. Preston
Bassett, of the Sperry Gyroscope Co., took me up
"Well,
home.
it's all
I
143
'
:
;
""",v,. s ;
-ill
pound bomb of TNT, dropped on battleship from
plane flying two miles high; a miss (above) and a hit (below).
10,000
144
into the wheelhouse to observe the behavior of the
master gyro compass, and also the distant controlled
compasses at various stations on the ship. The gyro
compass is a great achievement. Then after we were
seated with our feet on the deck rail, as the ship slips
through the quiet water, he explains also the working
of the 'Iron Mike,' the gyro-controlled automatic
steersman which holds the ship on her course from
port to port. It has been a great treat, this demon
stration.
We shall be in shortly now. I excused
myself to my friend to write you this story."
Early in the week of June 7, 1925, Mr. Jenkins
considered the development of radiovision, radiomovies and television had proceeded so far that a
public disclosure of radiovision and radiomovies
might be undertaken. Orders were therefore given
the staff to set up a transmitter in the NOF station,
at Anacostia, which had again been offered by the
Navy for the demonstration. A receiver was ready
in the laboratories in Washington.
The last ad
had
been
and
made,
justment
everything set for the
show."
"big
Saturday early morning testing was
and
Mr. Jenkins went to the phone
satisfactory,
and called his friend of science, Dr. George M.
Burgess, director of the Bureau of Standards; the
Secretary of the Navy, Curtis D. Wilbur, who asked
if he might bring others; Admirals S. S. Robinson
and H. J. Ziegemeier, and Captains J. T. Thomkins
and E. C. Hooper; Judge S. B. Davis, Department of
Commerce; and Mr. W. D. Terrill, of the Radio
them apparently wanted to come,
Burgess saying he was dropping everything
to come at once.
A few minutes later Mr. Jenkins walked back into
the receiving room to see that everything was ready,
To his con
just as Dr. Burgess was announced.
sternation he found something had gone wrong;
Division.
All of
Dr.
there were no radiomovies coming in.
Crestfallen,
Mr. Jenkins greeted the doctor, and with dragging
feet led him to the rear room of the laboratory, where
145
uhttay
IX
"Radio
SUNDAY MORNING, JUNE
Vision***
14,
1925
Shown First Time
In History by Capital Inventor
C, Francis Jenkins* New Wireless Appa
ratus Depicts
AivayU*
Moving Objects Miles
INS
S. Officials See
Explc
desks during the next war and
1
dream of silence, became an accom watching the battle in progress."
"That's* perfectly possible, Mr. Sec
plished fact yesterday afternoon, with
the inventor replied seriously.
retary,"
and
Secretary of "the Navy Wilbur
The demonstration was of a strictly
other high Government officials wit
private .nature and, in the words of
nessing the feat.
Mr. Jertkins, did not pretend to be a
1
With the aid of a remarkable appa "show,"
"It is, merely a scientific test that,
ratus invented by the Washington
r
our
e
haA
attained
goal,"
proves we
scientist, C, I<"rancis Jenkins, the Sec
A
"By
Mr. Jenkins told his visitors.
retary of the Navy, Dr. George M,
making: numerous improvements in
Hurges. director of the Bureau of our sending and
machines
receiving
Standards.; Admiral D. W. Taylor, we expfect to be able shortly to stage
Peary
Cn'pt. 1'ri.ul Foley of the Naval Re- a 'radio, vision show.' with the talent
arch .-iborutory and others actu performing at "the broadcasting sta
the
ally "waw" by radio an object act in tion and the audiom-e watching
studio
motion several miles distant in front performance at the receiving
niiles distant."
of a "radio eye" installed at the Naval
What he officials saw' yesterday
Radio Station, NOF, at Bellevue, D. C, afternoon was the imasre of a, small By th A
It %vas heralded as the first time in cross revolving in a beam of H|?ht
BOS1
at
history that man has literally seen flashed 'T<ss a light-sensitive cell
were B. Ma
fnr-away objects in motion through Station {NOP, No other objects while
Amund
image,
the
test.
The
in*
used
the uncanny agency of wireless..
As Secretary Wilbur watched th not clefcr < ut r was easily distinguish his con
S
impart*
image of a revolving propeller, se able.
Director Burgess of tfte Bureau ot crew e
lected as the "Subject" to be fer<iadin congratulating the in
Rtandajrds.
Charles
rast, n.s it cavorteia on a small screen
said: "You've" certainly got it,
in the Jenkins laboratory, at 1519 ventor,
The <
all rlgl)t, if my eyes aren't deceiving
feet of
Coanei'fl' ut avenue, he remarkedv
d on Fag* 4, Column 6.)
"I JtLiJ>o*e we'll be Hitting At our
into t*
"Radio vision," long the fantastic
MAN
1
:-:t
i
j
he
rd
!
'
i
146
147
Dr. Geo. M. Burgess, Director U. S. Bureau of Standards,
inspecting apparatus Mr. Jenkins used to receive "Vision-byRadio" on the occasion of the first transmission of vision and
movies by radio from
ratories,
Navy
Washington, June
Station
13, 1925.
148
NOF
to the Jenkins
Labo
the receiver was located. As he went along he ex
plained that "too much should not be expected,"
and in this wise began building up an excuse for
the balky machine. But the excuse was never made,
for as the door opened it was discovered that the
mechanism was again performing, beautifully.
Only the pioneer will ever appreciate the relief
of that moment, when anticipated chagrin was
And happily the
superseded by congratulations.
Then
apparatus continued to operate perfectly.
the
direction
at
of
one
a
of
the
finally
petty officer,
the
transmitter
in
before
that
stood
remote
admirals,
radio station and wig-wagged a message to his
superiors standing before the radiovisor in the sur
charged atmosphere of that first television receiving
room.
Congratulations were in order, but they seemed to
be given in a rather awed manner as the unfathom
able possibilities of this new extension of
vision came to be more and more realized.
Two years later, 1927, the A. T. & T. Co.
human
made
a
television demonstration over their wires
one-way
between Washington and New York City. Wide
publicity resulted from this demonstration, and a
tremendous impetus was given the development of
television, as it doubtless appeared to engineers and
inventors everywhere as an endorsement of the
pioneer attainments and predictions of Mr. Jenkins
and his staff of assistants.
During the week of September 25, 1925, Mr. and
Mrs. Jenkins were guests of Mr. Roger Babson, at
Bab son Park, Mass., the week of the Babson Annual
Business Conference, when Mr. Jenkins read a paper
describing the progress he had attained in fac simile
radio transmission, radiomovies, and television, and
predicting a wide service when an acceptable public
introduction had been attained.
A year later Mr. Jenkins again attended as a guest
speaker, and read a paper on the immediate future
development of the airplane in business, prophesying
149
a "shuttle line" or "taxi air service," from the flying
the business center of the city. This prophecy
now seems likely soon to be realized in the use of
the slotted flap wing, and the autogyro; the most
spectacular feat of the latter was landing in, and
flying out of the tree-bounded lawn of the White
House when President Herbert Hoover, on April 22,
1931, awarded the Collier trophy to the American
developers of this "windmill" plane.
The next suggestion of a new development came
from outside the Jenkins Laboratories, when in July,
1926, Capt. Ridley McLean and Capt. S. C. Hooper,
of the U. S. Navy, and Prof. C. F. Marvin, of the
Weather Bureau, met in Mr. Jenkins' office for a
conference on the feasibility of an experimental
field to
weather
map service by radio to ships at sea.
After some discussion Mr. Jenkins agreed to de
sign and build the special machines required, and
to have them ready to install and operate within
five weeks.
The Weather Bureau agreed to furnish
a current (8 x 10 inch) weather map every morning;
and the Navy was to furnish a radio transmitter at
Arlington Wireless Station and the ships required
to carry the map receivers in this triangular experi
ment.
Within the time specified two weather map trans
mitters and six receivers were ready.
One trans
mitter was set up in the Jenkins Laboratories, and
attached to a short-wave radio broadcast instrument;
the other was set up in the Recreation Room of the
Arlington Wireless Station, where it was operated
kc. until cold weather.
It was then moved
into the Navy Building, in Washington, and set up
in a room off "Radio Central" in the Bureau of
Communications, and connected with Arlington by
on 36
wire.
150
FE3
3,.
192?
ent of Agriculture, Weather B**f?a&
Department
Cltartc* F. ffUrvin. Cttt#t
^
^^^^3
Weather Map by Radio
Weather
Map by
(original 8
Radio
x 10 -inch)
151
oS
fc
152
153
FROM: USS KITTERY
ACTION :OPNAV
NIFO: HYDRO. BUENG.
1016 REF YOUR 1914 1215 SECOND HIGH FREQUENCY
MAP PERFECT 0225
0-35863
FROM: USS KITTERY
TO ACTION: OPNAV
BUENG HYDRO WASHN.
FORTY FIFTEEN KCS MAP EXCELLENT
INFO:
1023
DL
1455.
1826.
FROM: USS KITTERY
TO ACTION: OPNAV
BUENG HYDRO WASHN.
FORTY FIFTEEN KCS MAP EXCELLENT
INFO:
1023
DL
1455.
1826.
FROM: USS KITTERY
OPNAV
MIDNIGHT MAP EXCELLENT RECEIVED DUR
ING LOCAL THUNDER SHOWER 1400.
2034 MM.
TO:
1022
FROM: USS KITTERY
TO ACTION: OPNAV
INFO: BUENG HYDRO.
1020 NIGHT MAPS EXCELLENT ON FOUR THOUSAND
FIFTEEN KCS 0010.
1154 Z
1-4406.
FROM: USS KITTERY
TO ACTION: OPNAV
BUENG HYDRO
BOTH MAPS THIS DATE EXCELLENT
INFO:
1029
XL
1529
154
1432.
4 Z LARK V NHW N BOND COIN GR 11
FROM: USS KITTERY
TO ACTION: OPNAV
INFO: BUENG HYDRO.
1009 FIRST WEATHER MAP RECEIVED AT SEA INTER
MEDIATE FREQUENCY PERFECT 2230.
NAM NR
JT 1028
1 DN V PT Z LARK V NHW N BOND COIN GR 17 BT
FROM: USS KITTERY
TO ACTION: OPNAV
INFO: BUENG.
1011 MAP OF LABORATORY PERFECT TODAY WITH
TWENTY SIX DEGREE ROLL OF SHIP 0100
718
AM
I
38773.
FROM: USS KITTERY
ACTION: OPNAV
HYDRO BUENG
YOUR 1914 1215 HIGH FREQUENCY MAP LABO
RATORY PERFECTION 1015
19 ORIG 20 B 20 C BUENG HYDRO:
INFO:
1015
2045
DH.
FROM: USS KITTERY
TO ACTION: OPNAV
INFO: BUENG HYDRO.
1019 MAP FORTY FIFTEEN KCS EXCELLENT
DR
416
0715.
1-44332.
383 Z LARK V NHW N BOND COIN GR 17
FROM: USS KITTERY
TO ACTION: OPNAV
INFO: BUENG HYDRO.
1015 ALL WEATHER MAPS FOUR THOUSAND FIFTEEN
KCS EXCELLENT 2336 BC
19 ORTG BUENG HYDRO 42888
NAU
155
One
was located
in the Jenkins
Laboratories for checking purposes; another in the
Navy Building; one in the Weather Bureau; one in
Chicago; one aboard the flagship of the Atlantic
of the receivers
the U. S. S. Trenton; and one on the IT. S. S.
Kittery, Naval Operations Base, Hampton Roads,
Virginia, from which point she made cruises to
Guantanamo Bay, Port-au-Prince, St. Thomas, and
other points in the Caribbean Sea, a territory noted
for its severe static disturbances.
The transmitter consisted of a motor-rotated glass
cylinder upon which a photo-negative of the inkfleet,
drawn weather map was wrapped.
The
light-
sensitive cell signals representing the elementary
areas of the map were amplified and used to control
the output of the radio-transmitter of the broadcast
station.
The map
receivers aboard ship were rather simple
and consisted of a motorrotated cylinder upon which was fastened an 8 x 10
inch base map printed in brown. The motor was
devices, of light weight,
driven by the ship's lighting circuit, and the mark
ing pen was attached to the radio code receiver in
the "radio shack."
At a scheduled hour, after the usual code an
nouncement, the radio man would hear: "Stand by
for a weather map."
Thereupon he would cut
out his loudspeaker and cut-in his map machine.
In a few minutes a weather map in red ink on the
brown-printed base map would be ready to hand the
captain of the ship.
The very first cruise of the U. S. S. Kittery with
the weather map receiver aboard covered the time
of the (1926) "Florida hurricane."
The hurricane
was recorded on the 15th, 16th and 17th of Septem
ber, three days before it struck the Florida coast.
Only a casual inspection of these maps showed that
if the ship held her course she would encounter the
maximum fury of the storm with consequent jeopardy
of lives, ship and cargo.
The ship's course was
156
temporarily changed to an easterly direction and
she rode out the blow safely, though many other
ships
went down.
The
weather maps were rather uneventful,
that
the
quality of the maps continued to
except
skill
was attained by the operators at
as
improve
both the transmitting and receiving instruments.
But the fact was established by these tests that a
weather map could be successfully made during
later
static weather when weather reports by code
could not be received at all. The explanation is that
the map can be read by its context, as a whole,
where code signals are often blotted out by static
making the message unintelligible.
Following the weather map experiment, trans
mitting a newspaper front page was attempted. An
analyzer was sent to Chicago and set up in the
powerful Wrigley broadcast station. The receiver
bad
was
set
up
in
Washington.
The newspaper page was
14 x 19 inches, to date
the largest surface ever transmitted over a radio
The results of this single attempt were
channel.
surprisingly good, but refinement was not continued.
Mr. Jenkins believes that ultimately a page of
principal news items and daily financial quotations
will be broadcast by the great newspapers of our
country, to be received at outlying summer camps
and winter resorts, and duplicated by a chemical
process, say, blue prints or the like, and furnished
individual and bill board subscribers. By this means
this news sheet would be read thousands of miles
away before the main publication would be put on
the streets of its home town.
Having now established priority in visual radio
and radio vision and radiomovies in par
in general,
with a workable knowledge of the essentials
mechanisms and methods for each, Mr. Jenkins
began in earnest to push development toward the
broadcast of radiomovie entertainment for the home.
Apparatus was designed and built for the visual
ticular,
in
157
radio transmitter; and broadcast station equipment
was
built
and
installed.
broadcasts on a
wave-lengths, preferably harmonics,
plurality
had been made of the Federal Radio Commission,
and, on explanation that this should, theoretically
at least, overcome the bugaboo of skip distances,
four channels were assigned by the Commission for
the experiment, and a station signature 3XK, later
Application
for
simultaneous
of
W3XK.
July 2, 1928, was determined on for the initial
radiomovies broadcast, and friends invited to be
present. Among them were members of the Federal
Radio Commission and
The morning was spent
their technical advisers.
in a survey of the station
visitors, with Mr. Jenkins
of
the different mechanisms.
function
the
describing
Later demonstration broadcasts both of television
and radiomovies were put on. There was discussion
of applications of service for the new venture, and
predictions as to its ultimate value in commerce,
All signed the
in education, and in entertainment.
and equipment by the
book, and departed talking of
the possibilities of this pioneer contribution in radio.
That evening the first scheduled broadcast of
picture story entertainment was made, to be fol
lowed every evening thereafter (except Sundays and
holidays) at 8 o'clock E. S. T., and without a miss.
The radio amateurs of the country were invited
laboratories guest
to participate in this pioneering by equipping their
short wave radio sets with picture receivers, and
then reporting on the quality of picture reception.
The response was instantaneous. But
them found it difficult to accurately
scanning disc for the picture receiver,
designed a "Kit" of parts out of which
as
many
of
perforate a
Mr. Jenkins
an excellent
radio visor could easily be made. The Kit contained
every element necessary to a complete receiver,
namely, the neon lamp, scanning disc, synchronizer,
mounting,
etc.,
everything but a motor, for $7.50.
158
s I
p'3 o
73
159
JTi
_.
g
160
161
Frames taken from early (1928) Radiomovies broadcasts from
Jenkins Laboratories, Washington, D. C.
W3XK. The
162
Iff
Frames taken from early (1928) Radiomovies broadcasts
from W3XK. The Jenkins Laboratories, Washington, D. C.
163
The Jenkins Lens-disc Radiomovies Transmitter of
Lenses arranged in a circle; film moves continuously.
164
1928.
165
166
Dr. William John Cooper, U.
S.
Commissioner
tion, investigates the future possibilities of radio
television in teaching.
167
of
Educa
movies and
The Kit
cost
more than that
to manufacture, even
in considerable quantities, but the reports which the
amateurs sent in were of inestimable value in improv
more than worth the difference.
These first broadcasts were on four wavelengths,
one of which was a 47 meter radio wave. And as the
18,000 amateurs had their own communications
ing the broadcasting,
wave
at 40 meters, it was easy to tune in the picture
signals, and the microphone announcement which
preceded.
The channels assigned to the new station were
but 10 kc. wide, and so silhouette pictures only were
broadcast at first. As but a single station only was
served, the whole cost of making these movie story
films had to be charged to this station. So the penand-ink cartoon pictures seen in theatres were, ob
viously, entirely too costly to buy and use. There
fore, a silhouette studio, unique in the movie art,
was designed and
set
up by Mr. Jenkins,
silhouette story films could be
made
in which
as cheaply as
ordinary movie films.
The stars of these radiomovie plays were recruited
from the laboratory staff, except for those parts
taken by children. For these parts little friends came
selected for their cleverness and amenability.
Among these was little Miss Jans Marie, who came
to be known all over the continent as "the little
in,
girl
bouncing the
The
ball."
was from the laboratory staff,
Mrs. Florence Clark, as was also the cameraman,
Teddy Belote. Others of the "stars" were from the
office force, Mrs. Sybil Windridge and Miss Hunter.
When additional male characters were required in
the cast they were had from the radio room; for
example, Stuart Jenks, Paul Thorn sen and Dick
Battle.
The scenario writer was Elwood Russey.
The whole of this studio equipment was built under
the immediate supervision of John Ogle, as was also
the radio broadcast station analyzers.
Incidentally, it may be of passing interest to note
studio director
168
that soon after Mr. Jenkins had read, before a meet
ing of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, a
paper describing this new silhouette studio, a similar
studio was set up in Hollywood and theatre produc
tions were made, the entire story, action, actors and
background, all in black and white only, pictures
which caught the popular fancy at once.
Later on, as technical skill was attained, and me
chanisms and methods improved, the Federal Radio
Commission was asked for wider radio bands, over
which halftone pictures could be broadcast. Chan
nels 100 kc. in width were granted. A more power
ful broadcast station was then immediately planned.
Approval of a location five miles north of Washing
ton was asked and granted, and steps were imme
diately taken to build and equip such a 5 kw. station.
As soon as it was ready, the broadcasting was un
interruptedly transferred to this station for the
nightly picture entertainment broadcasts, thus keep
ing faith with the host of friends scattered over the
country, and who had learned to trust Mr. Jenkins'
promise of "picture stories by radio every evening."
As was to be expected, the widespread interest
created by continued successful nightly broadcast
radiomovie stories for home en
tertainment, began to attract the attention of keen
men of affairs. And in November of 1928 a financier
of New York City and Palm Beach undertook the
merchandising (under the corporate title, The Jen
kins Television Corporation) of the devices devel
oped in the Jenkins Laboratories, the latter owning
by assignment all the patents issued and pending
from
W3XK,
of
applications on visual radio.
On the evening of January 22, 1929, Mr. Jenkins,
as guest speaker at the "Indiana Home-Comer's
Week" banquet,
in Indianapolis, again spread the
tidings of television, giving credit to the climate of
the Hoosier state, whose sons have made names for
themselves in so many lines of human progress.
The program seemed
to be well received,
169
due to
and to the excellent public
to Mr. Jenkins the most
was
the
pleasing part
delightful introduction by
Mr. Howe Landers who, referring to the Arabian
Night's Tales, with its "magic mirror," in which
the wanderer could see the folks back home as he
listened to their hearthstone conversation, said he
was introducing the inventor of that "magic mirror."
It was a clever thought and interestingly appropriate.
Pending the completion of the transfer, after the
sale of the Jenkins Laboratory stock, and the tooling
of the factory, Mr. Jenkins took advantage of the
interest in the subject,
address system in use.
But
opportunity for a vacation, going to Miami Beach,
Florida, in time to witness the Seagrave-Gar Wood
international boat race, which he described in a
letter to a friend as follows
"Well, this has been a big day for the nautical
sportsman. And he is here at Miami Beach in num
The lobby of the hotel is crowded with
bers, too.
canvas shoes, flannel trousers, blue coats, and
:
white caps, with commodores, captains, and mates
And many an 'Avast'
inside these jolly uniforms.
hail is heard above the gentler greetings of their
diaphanously-gowned, sun-tanned women folks.
"For me the day began when I was wakened by
the noisy sunrise work-out of the contestants. The
most conspicuous were the busy little outboard
motors with their vicious machine-gun clatter. They
are all over the place, shooting this way and that,
without rhyme or reason, as they tear around, jump
ing erratically from crest to crest of the tiny waves
they themselves kick up.
"Out of this persistent racket comes a new sound,
a deep-throated ominous growl from the multimotored Miss England, as Major Seagrave puts her
through a final try-out. But while she slips through
the water with astonishing speed, one has the feeling
that the Major is not showing all that he expects of
her
later.
"Aboard the yachts, which seem almost to
170
fill
this part of Biscay ne Bay, activities began early.
Sailors in dungaree are mopping decks, polishing
and generally dressing ship. Many already
have run up their string of flags, from stem to stern
over the mastheads. Some of those tied up at the
dock are casting off their lines preparatory to taking
brass,
their positions inside the circuit of the course.
"The bell boys from the hotel have put chairs on
the grass inside the concrete walk along the seawall.
There must be a mile of them, at least, as they range
away in a double row along the shore. The wharf,
now cleared of boats, is roped off for the special
benefit of those holding hotel guest tickets.
"Workmen have also erected on the lawn some
temporary grandstand seats of green boards and
risers, which, finished, look for all the world like
circus seats, except that they lack the sheltering
shadow of the 'big top.'
"On the roof of the wharf shelter the microphone
man is stretching his wires; and on the lawn below
our window a Scottish band is taking its position.
Their kilties and plumed turbans add gayety and
color to the scene. The only incongruous feature is
the hatless bandleader in a palm beach suit, beating
time, but with a lack of snap and enthusiasm quite
unusual. He leisurely surveys the crowd seated all
about, and now has actually gone away and lets the
music run along by itself.
"But to bring us back with a snap to a realization
that this is a modern show, some big tri-motored
planes sail overhead, giving their passengers a more
inclusive view than even we get from our sixthstory window, and that is not bad at all.
"But now the course is cleared. The press boat
is making a preliminary photographic survey, with
much sighting of cameras and turning of movie
cranks. The official starter's boat is taking its place
away off at the other end of the course from us, and
a general tenseness of expectancy seems to possess
everyone. Yes, this is going to be a sure-enough show.
171
"There goes the starter's gun, ordering the con
testants to 'line up.' From here the darting specks
me of the 'skeeters' we boys
used to watch, in the long ago, shooting this way and
that on the surface of the little stream which ran
along the side of the big road at the end of the lane.
"Again the smoke of the gun, followed a few sec
onds by a 'boom,' which reaches us away off here
after the boats are actually started. But long before
on the water remind
they come abreast of us, the contestants have strung
out, as they jump about to the tune of a planing mill
hum out of all proportion to the size of the craft.
"Redbird leads, and oh, boy, how he is coming.
Round the marker buoy he goes, keeping right side
up by a miracle, into the back stretch, not daring
to slow up, for the others are pushing him hard, two,
three, four, five, in a row, Orange Blossom in fifth
Now they round the home buoy and head
place.
toward us again. But, look, Orange Blossom, with
her 80-pound girl skipper, has waked up, she passes
Jemima, how that girl drives.
four, three and two.
"Redbird hears that terrifying roar as he nears
the upper marker. Imprudently looking behind him
he makes a bad turn and Orange Blossom passes him.
And, boy, oh, boy, how that girl hangs onto her lead
as she heads for the judge's boat.
"Orange Blossom wins. And she gets the purse.
But I'll bet she thinks the worth-while reward came
when she took the lead away from Redbird. That
was real gratification, putting it all over that pre
sumptuous man he thinks he can drive, pugh!
"But there goes the starter's gun again, and toward
us, abreast, come four low-lying, long, thin boats,
with a steady, determined stride that means busi
ness.
They begin to string out as the outside boat
takes the lead and steadily widens the gap. Around
the marker they go; down the back stretch; around
the home buoy, and toward us again as steady as sail
boats. Pshaw, this isn't a race, it is just a bit of a
day's grind for a money purse.
172
"If Gar Wood and Major Seagrave don't give us
more of a thrill than that, I shall be disappointed.
"But look, they are towing Miss England to the
starting line. I guess she must be a delicate creature.
But I think the Major intends to get every ounce of
energy out of that motor even though he drives it
to destruction during this one race.
"And here comes Miss America, proceeding under
own power, to take her place on the starting line.
her
the huskier of the two boats, and gives one an
impression of enormous power.
"They line up. And they are a grim, determined
looking pair as they jockey into position for the start,
each with a small grove of black exhaust pipes stick
ing straight up out of the engine cockpit in the stern.
"Boom. They are off. A good start. Miss
America immediately begins to draw away from Miss
England. They round the first buoy, Miss America
still gaining.
The American boat makes the turn
much better than the British boat. Around the
home buoy, and around the distant buoy again, with
Miss America steadily increasing her lead. She is
rounding the home marker, and but something is
wrong, she shoots off on a tangent to the turn straight
ahead, out of control, with a broken steering gear.
"Miss England keeps on for the required two more
laps to win the race.
"Such is the hazard of sport. It promised to be a
She
is
;
but 'flivvered.' Fortunately, however, not
before it was very evident that Gar Wood's boat is
still the fastest water craft ever built.
"And so the crowd disperses; the sun goes down
in a golden glow; the evening sky a pink glory be
hind the spires of the Magic City across the Bay.
The lights go on along the causeways, as the fairy
islands clothe themselves in shadowy mystery; and
in solitary grandeur, the Flagler monument, bathed
in soft light, points its slender shaft to the darkening
fine race,
sky."
Joy hops from Florida
airfields
173
revived Mr. Jenkins*
dormant love of flying and soon after his return to
Washington he went to Detroit and purchased a 4place cabin plane, powered with a "Whirlwind"
motor. It was past noon when the plane was ready,
so he flew to Richmond, Indiana, where his two
Next day the hop was continued,
brothers lived.
the older brother,
to
Washington
Atwood
L. Jenkins, going along
for the ride.
The object of the purchase was both pleasure and
research, and one of the first uses to which the plane
was put was an actual flying test of a theory Mr.
namely, that an electrical (engineignition) shadow existed behind the metal fire-wall
of every airplane, and that if the radio antennae
were flown aft instead of below the plane, no engine
Jenkins had,
ignition interference would be picked up by radio
receivers carried by the plane. On test the fact was
established.
Air equipment for two-way radio communication
aboard a ship in flight was then immediately de
signed, built and put aboard the plane for longer
flight tests. Flights between Washington and Phila
delphia, and between Washington and Langley
Field, Virginia, were made with perfect success, and
without ignition interference of any kind. The set
was then taken out of the plane for further refine
ment, in anticipation of flights of still longer duration.
In June, 1929, Earlham College, at Richmond,
Indiana, wrote Mr. Jenkins that the faculty had
voted him an honorary degree, and inviting him to
be present at the annual graduation exercises on the
17th to receive the award in person.
Learning of this, the youngest brother, Mr. A.
W. Jenkins, guessing that Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins
would fly out to Richmond for the ceremonies, tele
graphed asking permission to come on to Washington
and ride back with them. Though the brother was
not a pilot, he was a good civil engineer, and could
read maps, and his presence was welcomed.
So in the morning the hangar attendants filled
174
the fuel tanks, rolled the plane out onto the flying
The three got into
field, and warmed up the engine.
the plane, waved adieu to friends on the field, and
with a roar the plane took the air for Mrs. Jenkins'
first long flight in the new plane.
A course was set for Richmond, Indiana, over the
Allegheny Mountains, and crossing the Ohio River
In four hours the
at Wheeling, West Virginia,
plane circled the Richmond field, and turning, Mr.
Jenkins set it down headed into the wind, but only
to find the field surface so soft that when the plane
stopped rolling it was stuck and had to be pulled
It had been raining almost
out with a tractor.
steadily for two weeks.
A few days later, the ceremonies over, and the
brother willing to read maps again and check the
return course, the three took their places in the
plane, and C. Francis Jenkins, D.Sc., "gave her the
gun." The return trip was broken, however, by a
stop at Columbus, Ohio, for a few minutes greeting
of a sister, Mrs. Alice Maxfield, and children.
After learning that there was fog in the mountains,
but good
visibility and high ceiling beyond, with
sunshine and clear skies at the Washington airport,
the plane was put into the air and a return course
set to again cross the Ohio River at Wheeling. From
there the plane climbed rapidly until when the fog
and clouds of mountains were encountered an alti
tude had been attained known to be well above the
mountain tops. Sight of the ground below was, of
course, soon lost and the ship was navigated by
compass for more than an hour. At the end of that
time the plane was cautiously nosed down until,
when it broke through the clouds at about two
thousand feet, it was seen that the ship was off the
course less than ten miles.
With the Potomac River a silvery ribbon to the
left, and the Washington Monument a landmark
ahead to guide the pilot in, the plane soon glided
into the field, rolled to a gentle stop at the loading
175
176
m
"fffiiH.
"
Mr. Jenkins, pilot, and Paul Thomsen, radio officer, successfully complete
two-way radio communication test flight Washington-Detroit in unshielded
engine cabin plane.
177
platform, and another delightful trip was complete.
In anticipation of the use of the plane to carry a
television transmitter, further radio broadcast tests
were arranged, and for distance. It was believed
that scenes flown over might be radioed back to the
more powerful ground
station for re-broadcasting, so
that regular television "fans" served by
might
see on their radiovisor screens in their homes every
thing the lens aboard the plane was looking at as the
ship passed over cities, farms, mountains, fortifica
tions, or fleet maneuvers.
To test the adequacy of the radio for distance, the
specially designed transmitter-receiver set was, in
September, put aboard the plane and a course set
The outfit
straight for Detroit from Washington.
W3XK
complete with power supply weighed but 28 pounds;
for the radio transmitter-receiver, and
for battery.
Mr. Paul Thomsen was
in charge of the set and Mr. Jenkins flew the plane.
Two-way communication with Teddy Belote, the
operator on watch in Washington, was maintained
by phone until the skip distance for that wavelength,
pounds
pounds
47 meters, was encountered. The signals faded out
as the first range of mountains was reached. A key
was then substituted for the microphone, and con
tact again established, about the time the plane
crossed the Ohio River. Two-way code communica
tion was maintained from then on all the way to
Detroit.
In the early afternoon Mr. Jenkins, from the
aboard the plane, sent a message to Mrs.
Jenkins back in Washington that he was nearing
Detroit and that the antenna would soon be reeled
in for a landing, a message doubted by the radio
man on watch in Washington until he heard the
pilot's seat
carrier
wave
die out.
And thus another record was established for twoway communication with an airplane in flight, the
plane powered with an unshielded engine, and with
an unprecedented light-weight radio set.
178
The
feat was possible only because the antenna
aft of the plane in the electrical shadow
projected by the fire wall of the plane. With a long
was flown
antenna flown
aft, a light- weight, small-gain radio
adequate, for no engine ignition interference
will be encountered.
In June, the father, Amasa M. Jenkins, then
stopping in Washington, expressed, at the dinner
table, a desire to visit friends in Greensboro, N. C.
Mr. Jenkins, always looking for an excuse to fly,
immediately offered to carry him down, as an 86th
birthday gift. So next morning the plane was rolled
out on the field, and warmed up. With passenger
and baggage aboard, Mr. Jenkins invited a friend
at the field to go along for the company of his
presence on the way back. Of course, the invitation
set
is
was accepted. It would be.
Hopping off, the course was laid over the beaconmarked mail route south, past Richmond, Virginia.
In three hours the plane glided to a landing at the
air-mail field serving Greensboro, High Point and
Winston-Salem. The children of the friends who
were waiting at the field were given a local hop, and
then the parents themselves.
Refueling, and bidding the friends good-bye, and
leaving the father in their kind care, the return trip
was started. But before proceeding very far Mr.
Jenkins believed he detected a new note in the drone
of the engine.
A little later smoke was detected
the base of the cylinder in which
from
coming up
the master connecting rod worked. The smoke in
creased in volume, and the noise got worse.
Mr.
Jenkins asked his friend to look on the map and see
if the nearest emergency landing field was to the
rear or ahead of them. It was found that the nearest
field was located just beyond a small town in sight
two or three miles ahead. Mr. Jenkins throttled the
engine to a low r.p.m. hoping to carry the plane to
the field before serious damage to the engine would
result.
It
was not
successful,
179
however, for in a
few seconds more the cylinder was knocked loose,
although it was prevented from falling to the ground
by the exhaust and intake manifold. An attempt to
stop the engine disclosed that the throttle wire had
Neither did opening the ignition
switch stop the engine, for it was so hot that preignition kept it running. Meantime the hot oil was
pouring out of the crankcase, and making sight
through the windshield impossible.
Turning the plane over to his pilot friend, Mr.
Jenkins loosened his safety belt and reached down
under the instrument panel and cut off the flow of
gasoline in the fuel line from the wing tanks. Getting
back in the seat and fastening his belt again, the
plane was then slipped down "on the wing" from its
2,500 feet altitude to a few feet above a plowed
The throttle
field, across which it was guided.
the
shaken
wide
now
been
plane was
open,
having
with
a
carburetor
an
miles
a
hundred
hour,
flying
bowl of fuel to be burned up before the motor would
been cut somehow.
stop.
Straight for a mountain at the far end of the field
the plane flew, the engine showing no indication of
stopping. When a crash was seen to be inevitable
the plane was pulled up through the tops of the pines
and cedars of the mountain side until the plane
stalled. Pushing the stick forward the plane rammed
its nose into the earth from the height of the trees,
and with neither occupant hurt at all. The plane was
hardly down, it seemed, before visitors from the
fields and from the nearby town came running up
through the woods, disappointed perhaps because of
the lack of excitement usually attendant upon some
one being
killed.
was willing to stay and put the plane
and engine aboard a freight car for shipment to the
factory, Mr. Jenkins accepted the kind offer of the
minister of the little church of the town to carry him
to Danville, some fifteen miles away on the main
As the
friend
line railroad.
180
Calling Mrs. Jenkins on the phone she immediately
said without waiting to be told of the crash: "You've
had an accident. I told you this morning you would.
You remember I didn't want you to go."
woman's
intuition. "Are you hurt ?" On being reassured, she
was happy again, only to await the return of her
A
husband by rail that night, a seven hour ride which
by plane would have been completed in less than two
hours.
In the spring of 1930, Mr. George Sargent, of the
Professional Golf Association of America, called on
Mr. Jenkins, in Washington, explaining that a golf
stroke was so fast that its exact technique was not
definitely known, and that it had been suggested
that perhaps the Chronoteine camera might permit
an exact analysis of the stroke to "take the guess
out of golf."
Mr. Jenkins said he believed the
camera amply fast enough to do this.
And so a phone call engagement was made with
Bobby Jones to meet him in Atlanta, late in July.
The result of this meeting is well told by Mr. O. B.
Keeler, in The American Golfer, which is quoted from
by permission:
" 'This will
take the guess-work out of golf in
struction,' said
George Sargent.
He went
He
spoke with some
on:
emphasis.
"
'The teaching of golf has been a matter of theory
from the beginning, cluttered up with tradition more
and more, as the profession grew older. The trouble
was, nobody knew for sure what happened during
the golfing stroke. Now we are going to find out.
This machine of Mr. Jenkins will discover it, every
detail. For the first time since golf has been played,
and taught, we shall see what makes it tick. The
Jenkins pictures leave nothing whatever to the
imagination.'
"Mr. Sargent of the Professional Golfers' Associa
America made this statement in Atlanta the
latter part of July.
He was there, with C. Francis
of
Jenkins,
Washington, and John N. Ogle, camera
man unto Mr. Jenkins, to make motion pictures of
tion of
181
Bobby Jones
in action, at the rate of 3,200 pictures
per second, using the highest-speed movie camera in
Following two afternoons' work at East
Lake, Bobby's home course, Mr. Sargent and Mr.
Ogle were to sail August 5 for England, there to make
similar speed-films of the methods of Miss Joyce
Wethered and Harry Vardon.
" 'It is the
beginning of a new era in golf-study and
golf -teaching,' said Mr. Sargent, with a certain
solemnity. 'I believe it to be the longest step for
ward the instruction of the game has ever taken.'
"To set this out understandingly, it may be ex
the world.
plained that film exposed at this rate (3,200 per sec
ond), and projected on the screen at the normal
speed of the theatre, would require four minutes for
Bobby Jones' driving, which consumes scarcely more
than a second in actual execution. It exacts only a
moderate exercise of the imagination faculty to
grasp the extraordinary usefulness to the golf
teacher, or the golf pupil, of being able to observe
the excellent swing of Mr. Jones, or of Miss Wethered,
or of Harry Vardon, slowed down to four minutes
and yet perfectly reproduced in all the details and
phases by which that swing takes the ball and dis
patches
"
'We
it
accurately.*
have selected
*
*
Harry Vardon as the master
Mr. Sargent, 'and
the
Jones
as
master
and
most effective
Bobby
stylist
of
this
and
Miss
Wethered
as un
generation,
player
stylist of the preceding era,' said
questionably the greatest woman golfer thus far.'
"
'Of course, these sets of films will be made up in
prints and supplied to all the teaching members of
our Association who desire them and you may
imagine that will be all of them. With a simple
projecting machine and a small screen, the pro
fessional then is equipped to study golfing methods
at first hand as never before, and to teach them with
an authority and a verity hitherto unknown and
impossible.'
"Which,
I confess,
sounded to
182
me
like a
new epoch
in golf instruction.
first
fairway on the
I
regarded the maneuvers on the
at East Lake with a
new course
reverential eye, and I saw things in motion pictures
I never saw before.
"The incredible mechanism employed on the golf
I spent
swing was patented, for example, in 1894.
the next thirty years trying to make it work,' said
Mr. Jenkins with a chuckle. It works now.
"Mr. Jenkins, to begin with, is an extraordinarily
4
You probably have read a
interesting gentleman.
good deal about him in the papers, in connection
with some startling subjects radiomovies, radiovision, television, vision by radio, radio photographs;
and such astonishing matters.
"One thing which you will readily appreciate, if
you know the first thing about the motion picture
camera, is that the flow of film at this appalling
speed must be continuous.
"In the ordinary movie camera, the film comes to
a complete stop back of the lens for each exposure or
picture.
"But the first thing Mr. Jenkins explained to me
was the continuous flow of the film through the
camera and how photographs were made on it with
out
its
"It
stopping.
is
really very simple.
make
The only
trouble
is
to
it work.
"Instead of a single fixed lens, the Jenkins camera
has forty-eight lenses mounted near the rim of a
spinning disc of magnesium, which revolves at the
correct distance in front of the flowing film at a
The fortyspeed precisely synchronized with it.
eight lenses are so spaced that as each 'frame,' or
place for a photograph on the film, comes opposite
the opening through which the object is seen, one
of the lenses will be there, moving in the same direc
tion and at the same speed as the film, and hence,
to all intents and purposes, stationary with it.
"To the simple layman, as myself, confronted with
the problem of synchronizing the rim of a revolving
183
184
185
disc with the speed of a strip of film moving at a rate
of more than two miles a minute and carrying the
synchronization to a point where the area of critical
definition in photography is not disturbed, would
do well immediately to drown himself or give up and
Mr. Jenkins do the inventing.
"George Sargent, however, says there
let
era in golf instruction in
more about everything,
it.
He
says
we
is
a
shall
new
know
when the
films of Bobby,
and Harry and Miss Wethered are printed and pro
jected."
Perhaps it is sufficient to say that when the Bobby
Jones, Joyce Wethered, and Harry Vardon pictures
were developed, printed and projected it was defi
nitely known for the very first time that golf experts
play the game in exactly the same way. It was not
certainly
known
before.
When Mr. C. Townsend Ludington, of Philadel
phia, whom Mr. Jenkins had first met in Omaha
during the week's night-flying mail experiment, set
up the hourly New York-Philadelphia-Washington
passenger airline, in September, 1930, he invited Mr.
Jenkins, with others, to an initial trip over the route.
For some of the guests this was their first air trip,
although to others it was a familiar experience.
There was Mrs. Mabel Walker Willebrandt, prohibi
tion prosecutor for the U. S. Department of Justice,
who always takes a plane to her destination where a
plane is available; Major General J. E. Fechet, head
of Army Air Service when Question Mark, made
its refueling endurance flight; Mr. J. V. Magee, who
assisted Col. Paul Henderson, Second Assistant
Postmaster General, in establishing new routes of
the flying mail service; Commander J. Q. Walton,
of the U. S. Coast Guard Service, and others with
whom Mr. Jenkins was less well acquainted.
The route from Washington was past Baltimore,
crossing the Susquehanna River at Havre de Grace,
in sight of the Conowingo Dam power development;
past Wilmington and Philadelphia for a stop in the
186
187
new Cam den
airport (home field of the line) thence
to the landing terminal at Newark
Trenton
over
Mr. Jenkins
Municipal Airport for luncheon.
field
for
at
the
lunch
with Mr.
off
Camden
stopped
Mrs.
and
Ludington.
Being acquainted with the physical conditions in
volved, ajid numbering as friends the personnel as
well as the executives and owners of the line, Mr.
Jenkins watched its development and its growing
patronage with an intensity out of all proportion
His satisfaction grew ac
to his interest therein.
the
line
set
new world records for
as
cordingly
with
a 100 per cent safety
and
passengers carried,
;
factor to date.
Perhaps the establishment of no other airline ever
so stimulated the development of air travel.
At
least it demonstrated that the traveling public
would patronize an airline for its advantages in
speed, safety, comfort and absence of dust and
other earth annoyances, when the fare charged was
comparable with that for other available travel
facilities.
Mr. Jenkins confidently believes in the future wide
use of the unobstructed, unlimited highways over
head, so prophetically described by Tennyson in his
Locksley Hall:
"For I dipt into the future far as human eye could see,
Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonders that
would be;
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of
magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping
costly bales;
Heard the nation fill with
a ghastly dew
From
shouting,
down with
and there rain'd
the nations' airy navies grappling in the cen
tral blue."
Mr. Jenkins referred to the airplane as particularly
advantageous in the development of Canada's wide
188
virgin territory, on the occasion of an invitation visit
to speak before the Royal Canadian Institute, at
Toronto (and the Canadian Club, a day later), of his
audio-radio and visual-radio research, and its use
fulness in two-way communication in passenger air
plane operation.
It was gratifying to find, not only the scientists of
the Institute, but the "hard-boiled" business men of
the Canadian Club, both attentively interested, and
many of them believing in the prophecy and the
probability of its realization. One of them wrote:
"My mind is still full of what you told us in your
fascinating address. I would not have believed that
anyone could make a scientific subject so thrillingly
interesting to a meeting of four or five hundred hardheaded business men. Your delightfully humorous
touch, and the inconceivable possibilities which you
place before us for the future, provided a combina
tion of entertainment and absorbing interest which
it would be hard to equal."
Dr. T. A. Russell, president of the Institute, had
invited governmental officials and representative
business men, and their ladies, to meet Mr. and Mrs.
Jenkins at his home; and the generous attendance
and enthusiasm of the reception and subsequent dis
cussion seemed to be an indication of their confidence
in the future of aviation and radio as promoters of
national and international business, especially in the
far-flung territories of Canada.
Mr. Jenkins believes that ultimately there will
be found more opportunities for young men and
young ladies in these two rapidly growing industries,
i.e., aviation and radio, in their almost limitless ap
plications, than in any other two of our industries,
big as some of them are.
In the set-up of the 1928 corporation Mr. Jenkins
had been elected "Vice President in charge of Re
search," but in the early summer of 1930 he suggested
to the board of directors that the financial stringency
would be relieved somewhat if he were to resign, as
189
he was the highest paid officer in the company.
After some weeks of consideration the board of
Mr. Jenkins
directors accepted the resignation.
the
of
the
lease
took over
Washington laboratories
their
and continued
operation, but on his own indi
vidual responsibility, and with the same staff of
assistants.
After ten years of diligent effort in the development
Nipkow "scanning disc" method, in one
modified form or another, Mr. Jenkins now found
himself free to undertake a different scheme, which
he had had in mind for a long time, in which per
sistence of elementary picture areas was substituted
for persistence of vision of the eye.
In the old spirally perforated scanning disc, a
single point of light is made to sweep across a latent
of the old
picture surface in adjacent parallel lines, to build up
a picture (on the brain of the observer) by persistence
of vision of the eye.
It may be of passing interest to note that in this
old scanning disc method the picture does not
physically exist where it appears to be, i.e., in the
plane of the scanning disc, but is purely an illusion,
the picture existing only on the brain of the observer.
is never more than a single, tiny spot of light
the apparent picture plane, and nothing else.
This is readily proved by photographing the scanning
disc plane with a "snapshot" camera; a spot of light,
or a blurred line at most, is all that is recorded on
the negative plate.
From his own ten year efforts, and the observation
of the limited results attained by the great industrial
giants in radio with unlimited resources in money,
facilities and talent, Mr. Jenkins had definitely de
cided that the inherent limitation in the old method
is insurmountable.
Less than one six-millionth of
the intensity of the light source effectively reaches
That is a discouraging
the eye of the observer.
There
in
handicap.
In the new scheme proposed by Mr. Jenkins the
190
entire picture-light reaches the eye, or the picture
screen, which is 100 per cent more than is now re
ceived on the same size screen of a motion picture
theatre (because of the 50 per cent loss due to the
projector shutter which closes off the light every
time the film is moved), or the same brilliancy of
theatre radiomovies with half the present projector
light intensity at the source.
Several schemes of construction to put this new
method into effect were tried by Mr. Jenkins and his
staff, with varying degrees of success, but proving
the soundness of the underlying theory. One set-up
consisted of a grouping of 2,304 flash-light bulbs (48
horizontal rows with 48 bulbs in each row), the as
sembly acting as a light source. Another scheme
consisted of a 48-row bank of light cells, or lightpassing apertures, with 48 cells in each row. A light
was located behind the cell-bank, and the cells
closed by the incoming radio signals acting on tiny
electroscopes to close commutator-selected cells to
build up a shadow picture when projected on the
screen. The picture changes with the charging and
discharging of the electroscopes in the cells of the
cell-bank.
But the most promising prospect
consists of
a
transparent lantern slide the surface of which is
effected to selectively obstruct the light (passing
therethrough to the screen), by radiations sweeping
across the lantern slide surface in the usual adjacent
parallel lines.
The successful effect of this
method
is
to build
up
light-obstructing dots, or spots, on the lantern slide,
in chemical color (or diffraction dimples or bubbles)
for example, resembling the dots of the printer's
halftone block used in newspaper illustrations.
if this grouping of dots on the lantern slide
followed the order of the grouping of such dots on
Now
the picture image at the radio broadcast station,
obviously the lantern slide picture would be a fac
simile of the person, object, or scene at the distant
191
Face of the Jenkins Plate Receiver. It has 2,304 elementaryarea light-sources, arranged in 48 rows with 48 in each row. Per
sistence of light of each elementary area is substituted for per
sistence of vision, of the old spirally arranged disc-aperture method.
192
1
I
$uly
8,
18M.J*
HH ELECTRICAL
TRANSMITTING PICTURES BY ELECTRICITY.
One of the most
interesting nubjerts before icitmtific
time i* the problem of transmitting
I offer for what it is
may be ad*i-l to the
societies at the present
images to a distancevbv electricity.
worth a theoretical device which
DIAGRAM OF JKHKIKS'
methoJ* already suggested for the accomplishment of this
My scheme contemplates the use of selenium for
and the apparatus ie substantially as follows
A rectangular or circular non-conducting plate is set up
behind * letu* tn such a manner as to receive the image or
scene to be transmitted. Thi< plate or board has upon its
back a number of small short wires of selenium or sulphur,
ona end of each of which is thrust through the mm -con
tacting board and immediately turned back, coming out
,gain upon the same side and very near where it wa>
object.
* receiver,
:
ioopf|!BSBBB&ich of which is joined to a
conductor, the otoer ends having separate con
ductors extending over the distance intervening between
the transmitting and receiving stations. At the receiving
end is a large flat electric lamp of ground glass with fila
ments in number and position corresponding with the
tor each loop
loops at the transmitting station a filament
now have a number of selenium
and in circuit with it.
there
little
common
We
which are affected by
loops, each upon a separate circuit,
the light passing through the lens at the transmitting
filaments in a
station, and in circuit with these loops
of
lamp common to all the circuits. As the conductivity
each circuit is affected by the light impinging upon the
circuit
each
station
at the
selenium
loop
transmitting
a different quantity of the electric current generated
The
to all the circuits.
jby a dynamo in the wire common
result is that all of these little filaments glow, but each
with a different intensity and the light diffused over the
flat surface of the ground glass lamp at the receiving
than in others, tbe
station
brighter in some parts
rcarries
appears
to the bright parts
bright parts corresponding in position
lens at the
of the image projected upon the board by the
receiving station.
The scheme, if practicable when necessary modifications
tltiare made, is objectionable in that it contemplates a
basis for study the method
plicity of conductors, but as a
success
the
las its merits. I should be glad to learn of
of such an experiment by some one, as 1 cannot at present
test
it
myself.
193
broadcast station. And, of course, this lantern slide
picture can be projected onto a large screen in the
usual fashion.
Now if this lantern slide picture would fade out,
another might replace it arranged in a slightly
And if these pictures and fading
way.
could follow each other fifteen times every second,
a new form of motion pictures would result.
A fluid lantern slide, in which bubbles are elec
trically formed to build up the picture on the screen,
seems to have solved the problem. These bubbles
burst to obliterate the picture, with new bubbles in
new places formed to give the constantly changing
different
picture.
if these lantern slide pictures could be
up by amplified incoming radio picture signals,
then radiomovies could be distributed from Holly
wood to every theatre of the country by radio instead
of by film.
Again,
built
Later on, as refinement is attained, radiovision
pictures of distant scenes and events could be re
produced on theatre screens, and on smaller screens
in the home, simultaneously with the event itself.
Naturally synchronous sound will be broadcast
with the pictures, a realism absolutely uncanny, for
one will both see and hear the distant speaker, and
see and hear the distant ceremonies at the instant of
their happening, and in any part of the world.
In conclusion, and as suggested in the beginning of
this narrative, perhaps this inventor's boyhood activi
ties, likes and attainments, studied in conjunction
with the recital of his accomplishments in later life,
lead to a discovery in other youths of a latent
inventive talent; and which may then be cultivated,
or at least given the opportunity for development.
Such opportunity for latent musical and pictorial
talent is quite common, of course, and conservatories
of music and art schools are maintained for this very
purpose. But schools for the development of latent
creative talent in mechanical, electrical, chemical,
may
194
human endeavor
and
similar lines of
The
engineering, scientific, or
are lacking.
chemical curricula of
our colleges and universities cannot be so considered,
for these studies are usually pursued as leading to a
place in established industrial activities. They are
never considered as an effort to develop latent
creative talent to bring forth original additions to
man's evolution in the tools of civilization; as, for
example: ships, locomotives, automobiles, flying
machines, in transportation; an alphabet, movable
type, the printing press, typewriter, telegraph, tele
phone, and type-setting machines, in communica
tion; or the photograph, halftone block, lithograph,
movies, and radio vision, in pictorial presentation.
And as inventive history records only the finan
cially poor as discoverers of great revolutionary in
ventions, which have started new industries, it
would seem to suggest that aid and opportunity for
inventive talent might increase the pace of our
civilization.
Comparatively few inventions make money for
the inventor; in fact, one Commissioner of Patents,
in his annual report, declared that not one in a hun
dred of the more than fifty thousand patents issued
yearly make enough money to pay the cost of secur
ing the patent.
When the young man of this narrative resigned his
position in the government service, his only source of
income, to take up inventing as his sole employment,
he adopted the least promising, most discouraging,
and most heart-breaking profession in all the world.
And yet his contributions have added to human
progress, and he stands among the ten who have
each taken out more than 300 United States patents.
On the other hand, whether aids would really help
in the birth of new revolutionary inventions which
start new industries, like the telegraph, telephone,
typewriter, talking machine, motion pictures, etc.,
is not yet proved, indeed may be doubtful, judged
from an historical listing of their inventors.
195
It is true that several of the great industrial or
ganizations maintain research laboratories, but the
research is in the line of their industrial product, and
to date no new, revolutionary invention, which has
started new industries, such as listed above, has
come from such
laboratories.
Revolutionary inventions seem to be an avocational gratification rather than a vocational product.
And human nature being what it is, aid might defeat
the very intent of the bonus to the inventor. Who
may know
before
it is
repeatedly tried ?
196
197
An
evening's entertainment of talkie-movies.
198
Jenkins Talkie-Movies in the home.
199
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BROADCASTS
203
The Genesis of Radio
A
Broadcast from
WRC, November
20, 1924
C. FRANCIS JENKINS
The
history of radio
scientific curiosity,
and
is
at first only a
unique
for years thereafter a boy's
plaything; when, all at once, without warning, the
public takes it up with a suddenness no one foresaw,
which no one was prepared.
invention which behaves so peculiarly excites
one's curiosity to a study of its strange attraction;
and
for
An
and
the beginnings of the scientific principles
involved, now so knowingly discussed by mere
of
youngsters.
Why, boys
in the
whole range of
their teens dis
course with fluency and understanding such mysteries
as inductance, impedance and capacities; reactance,
reluctance and rotors; harmonics, aerials, and mush;
choppers, chokes and cheese; heterodyne, neutrodyne, and iodine; and we oldsters don't know whether
they are talking of medicine, music or food.
The only thing that saves us from everlasting em
barrassment is that we have the gumption to keep
our mouths shut.
So, determined to be ready for these "kids" the
next time they come into my august presence, I
start in to "bone up" on some of these funny words,
and for a start I turn to a musty volume printed
by Congress
in 1879.
It appears that
on January 16
of that year the
business of Congress was stopped, and, in solemn
procession, led by the Sergeant-at-Arms, the Chap
and the Vice-President, the Senate proceeded
to the House Chamber, where the Speaker handed
lain,
205
gavel to the Vice-President, who said:
"The Senators and Members of the Congress of
The United States are here assembled to take part
his
official
in services to be observed in
memory
of the late
Joseph Henry."
And, as I read the addresses made on that
rable occasion,
the solution to
I find
it
and look up the references
memo
cited, I get
my problem.
was Joseph Henry who
first
discovered
that breaking the circuit in a coiled wire "gives a
more intense spark than the same wire uncoiled."
And so inductance was born, and later in his honor
we name its unit of measure a "henry."
Then he put iron inside the coil and got the first
magnetic field; next he found that when he arranged
a second similar coil near the first, the spark ap
peared in a gap of the second circuit, and so we have
the
first
transformer.
He put
metal plates across the circuit, and
he had a condenser; and finally he separated the
parallel
by many hundred feet, and the first radio
signals were broadcast and picked up.
So we learn that to this modest but remarkable
man we owe the simple coupling coil that the boys
circuits
of the past twenty-five years
have been using to
telegraph to each other wirelessly.
And it is these American youngsters
who
first set
who have
up two-way communi
developed radio;
cation half-way around the world; who, through
their
Radio Relay League, kept Captain McMillan
touch with home during his long winter nights in
ice; who kept the Shenandoah in constant
contact with headquarters in Washington during her
in
the Arctic
recent transcontinental trip,
206
official
acknowledgment
which was publicly made by the Secretary of the
Navy.
Radio eventually will touch our lives at more
points directly and indirectly than any other dis
of
covery in the history of mankind, unless, perhaps, I
should make an exception in favor of fire.
And the delightful thing about it all is that the
inaccessible places are benefited the most by radio,
those in the out-of-the way places are less lonesome,
and the long day of the sick and shut-in is more en
durable.
The farmer has
his market reports on the minute,
weather forecasts in time for action, and he sets
his clock by radio and gets his entertainment from
his
the
air.
Dispatched and guided by radio, the flying mail
goes day and night with such clock-like regularity
that its remarkable performance is no longer "news,"
although industry has not yet waked up to the ad
vantage and economy which can be effected by a
larger use of the airmail.
Ships are guided into harbor through fog
by wire
and the captain was guided thereto
by radio compass and radio beacon, and at sea
summons aid in case of mishap or danger.
In commerce one may send letters, telegrams,
bank drafts, or engineer's drawings, as radio photo
less direction,
graphs of the originals, with photographic accuracy
and autographic authenticity.
Men on the ground talk with men in a flying ma
chine out of sight in the sky, an almost inconceivable
fact.
This reason alone would warrant one in predicting
is definitely going
that the defense of our country
207
to pass from the limited activities of the Army and
Navy to an Air Department, for the plane has no
boundary or limit of range in offense or defense.
And
in addition there
is
the wireless direction of
bomb-dropping airplanes, torpedo submarines, and
floating mines, inanimate agencies obeying the dis
tant, unseen hand.
And
ultimately power will be transmitted to
populous areas, over wireless channels, from the
enormous unworked coal fields away up in the Arctic
Circle.
The
applications of radio are coming so fast in
industry that it is hard to keep informed, but doubt
less its
most extended use
will
be in the home.
The use
of microphone modulated radio to carry
and
music
speech to our homes celebrated its fourth
anniversary only two weeks ago.
And
yet in this brief space (1) millions on millions
have been entertained with the very best the artist
has to offer; (2) a singer has been heard around the
world;
(3)
and our President has addressed
his fellow
Americans as a single audience.
When
onto the boundless range of audible radio is
world- wide appeal of the picture, the
the
grafted
ideal means of entertainment would seem to have
been attained, for the picture
literacy or age limitation.
By radio we shall see what
is
is
without language,
happening in a
dis
tant place; inaugural ceremonies, football, baseball
or polo games; flower festival, mardi gras, or baby
parade.
So when the development
of radio as a service
to the eye has progressed to a like extent with earservice radio, we will bring the entire opera to your
208
home
both acting and music or even the Olympic
games from across the sea.
It has been most satisfying to have had a part in
the development of this wonderful medium of con
tact between individuals and between nations. My
in
part being principally visual radio, I expect great
things from Radio Vision.
And did you ever notice the curious fact that a
great laboratory, despite its inestimable contribu
science and engineering, has never yet
forth
a great, revolutionary invention which
brought
has subsequently started a new industry, like the
tions
to
telegraph, telephone,
and telescope; motion
picture,
typecasting and talking machines; typewriter, bi
cycle and locomotive; automobile, flying machine,
and radio vision.
has always been a poor man to first see these
things, and as a rule the bigger the vision the poorer
It
the man.
And, do you know, that is right comforting, too;
for I sometimes think that perhaps I myself may yet
do something worth while if I only stay poor enough,
long enough.
209
The Engineer and His Tools
Banquet Address, Society Motion Picture Engineers,
at its Washington Meeting, Columbia Broad
cast Chain, Wednesday, May 7, 1930,
10:15 P.M., E. S. T.
C. FRANCIS JENKINS
We
are here tonight for a recreational hour in a
convention of the Society of Motion Picture En
group of specialists gathered together with
a basic thought, namely, to improve the tools of
the profession.
The line of our particular activities is picture en
tertainment, but all such conventions of engineers in
every line have a like purpose, namely, to improve
gineers, a
the
facilities of their particular
employment.
ever occurred to you that we act like civilized
beings only because we have such a great and varied
such a collection of tools that we
collection of tools
Has
can
it
together in communities of common interest ?
tools available to us and our engineers are the
live
The
things which enable us, we moderns, to remain alive
at all, although we usually think of them as means
to decrease our labor and increase our leisure.
As a
definition I refer to "tools" as
aid to an end;
gineer,
any physical
and any clever applicator as an en
whether he be
of uncultured
mind
or of a
trained intellect; but each is helpless without tools.
Tools have been the only civilizing influence in all
changed him from a selfish
food robber to a sympathetic neighbor.
I cannot agree with some of my evolution friends.
man's history.
It has
The preponderance
of
evidence proves there has
211
been no evolution of man, but only an evolution in
his tools.
The stone age man was as clever and ingenious as
modern man. His earliest handicraft was as adaptable
and symmetrical as that of today.
The scope of his works and the
of the
fineness of detail
product has developed with the refinement
and additions to his available tools.
Man's first aids doubtless were devices employed
to obtain food and clothing more easily than he could
do with hands and teeth alone; to be followed by
tools to improve his shelter and security.
Later he began to impress his will on others, re
quiring them to use these tools to the master's
advantage; and so slave labor became an established
institution. Next he turned to his personal use the
natural forces about him,
and
i.e.,
"fire,
water, earth,
air."
early man performed
of
slave
labor and more and
abundance
an
with
more ingenious tool equipment are marvels to this
The known works which
very day. Nothing in modern times exceeds these
early examples in majesty, in beauty, or in sym
metry.
Scientists of the National Museum tell me that
"the beautiful leaf -shaped flint blade has never been
made by modern man"; and that "today's quarryman cannot even guess how his predecessors removed
and set up the great monuments of the past."
But eventually tools were so many and so varied
that they could not be learned unaided in a single
So institutions were set up to teach the
lifetime.
young the
artifices available to
make
easier for
him
the getting of food, clothing, and shelter; for ex-
212
ample, an alphabet; the three R's; the multipli
cation table; pi times the diameter; the hammer;
the level; the transit; the telescope, etc.
But eventually tools became so numerous and so
varied that no one man could master them all, even
with every possible instructional aid, so he must
learn the tools of a single trade; and thus specialists
became common.
The modern machine age really began when Amer
ica was settled by the white man, for from that date
the evolution of machine tools has grown with
unprecedented rapidity.
Soon the perfect slave of man was the machine;
and as it developed into an aid a thousand times
more efficient than the human slave, the human
slave was liberated.
Our
food, our clothing, our shelter, our trans
portation, our communication, which make living
together possible for us, are products of tools, tools,
human hand only guides the tool.
But man is the same man he has always been; he
is of the same stature, he is no more clever, is no
more ingenious today than was primitive man. All
known evidence is to that effect, and no evidence to
tools; the
the contrary exists.
Why, if his evolution had been in stature, compar
able to the evolution of his tools, he would today
than the mountains; or if his evolution
mental attainment, he would be a super
man indeed, even a super-god.
There has been no evolution of man, but only an
be
taller
had been
in
evolution of his tools; and this fact is irrefutable
proof that man is a spiritual being, sprung from a
discrete cell, not
an offshoot from some early animal
213
plasm. His evolution of tools differentiates him from
all other living creatures.
And
accumulate, more tools are avail
able with which to make more tools, a tool evolution
which equips the inventor to evolve newer tools for
as tools
the use of the engineer in his attainments of greater
Tomorrow's tool equipment is in
conceivable today, and what can be done therewith
and greater
feats.
impossible of prediction.
With this infinite evolution of tools
more and more
of nature's forces to
oil,
gas, water; all of
see
and touch.
them
we have put
work
for us
sources of energy
:
coal,
we can
Tomorrow we
will put to work those sources of
rather more properly be spoken
could
which
energy
"a double bit
of as the intangible forces of nature
on the teeth of the lightning."
And
these
new
forces will be distributed over like
intangible channels. Long copper wires will not be
And over these intangible
so essential as today.
channels power can then be delivered where wires
cannot reach.
In 1844 a wire was stretched from Washington to
Baltimore over which enough energy was transmitted
to operate a telegraph recorder. But now a similarly
stretched wire carries
the
power to drive heavy
cities, and
interurban railway trains between these
with the swiftness of the wind.
today, over an intangible radio
channel, we send aloft energy enough to operate a
communication device aboard an airplane in flight.
Tomorrow we will transmit over this same intangible
Comparably,
channel enough power to drive the motors of the
plane
itself.
214
The next age
intangible
the age of electronics, the age of
contacts of man with man, and over
is
channels against which physical obstacles will have
little effect. Energy to light, to heat, and to cool our
houses,
tation,
and for general communication, transpor
and control, may then be distributed without
limits over the
whole earth.
As
far as our picture engineers are interested, I
confidently assert that the tools are now within sight
when
and notable events may be
homes
and on the screens of our
reproduced
theatres simultaneously with their happening; and
when motion pictures will be distributed from Holly
distant
scenes
in our
wood directly by radio instead of by film.
The Society of Motion Picture Engineers,
in the
its organization, has seen tremen
dous developments in this greatest of human enter
tainment, motion pictures; but the next fourteen
years will see even more startling developments, and
the audience many times multiplied, as radio is
fourteen years since
substituted for film as a carrier of this entertainment.
215
The Law of Free Movement
C. FRANCIS JENKINS
On occasions I have wondered if
there are not daily
phenomena
accept them as
facts without stopping to study the underlying law,
and thus overlook the possibility of useful applica
tion elsewhere.
Just for example, there is the fluttering flag with
which we are all familiar since our youth. Why the
flutter?
Why doesn't the flag stand out straight
from the staff like a piece of tin? A flag does not
flutter in water.
So where does the flutter come
so familiar to us that
we
from ?
The only
now
found many
where
she tells
Wonderland,"
years ago
us that the Old-Man-in-the-Mountain supplied flut
ters for flags, rustles for silk dresses, and a very
explanation I
recall I
in "Alice in
superior quality of post -hole.
But when I reached man's estate I did not find
Alice's explanation quite satisfactory, and so began
to puzzle out a reason for myself, and to
surprise
I found it fitted many other observed happenings, of
my
to you, and to me, to
insurance men, to airplane designers, to engineers in
interest to all kinds of folks
general.
So for
my own
guidance I wrote the explanation
into a physical law which I could apply, and which is,
practically, the Bernouilli theorum in the workable
phraseology of the man of the street, as follows:
object free to move in a fluid will move
that part of the fluid having the swiftest motion.
Any
That
is
why
the flag flutters, that
is
why
toward
leaves are
"sucked up" from the ground, and that is why frame
buildings are often pulled apart in violent wind
storms.
217
The law
also explains
why great plate -glass win
dows are "blown out" in
In normal
high winds.
conditions of quiet air the
pressure on each side of
the glass is equal; but as
thewindgrows
in velocity,
the air-pressure decreases
on the outside, the gusty
The ball stays in the stream of air issu
ing from the pipe
side of the glass, until the
pressure inside the window overcomes the
strength of the plate and the whole gives way with
explosive violence, the thousands of pieces being
static
blown outward onto the sidewalk. The precaution is
obvious: i.e., if you would save your plate-glass
windows during storms, leave a door open.
During the latter part of the war two airplane
hangars stood near each other on a flying field. On
the approach of black clouds indicating a violent
storm, hurried efforts were made to close the hangars,
but there was time to close only one of them. The
open one weathered the storm
the closed hangar were
sucked out in the wind
safely,
but the sides
of
and the heavy bridgetruss structure of the roof
dropped down on the
planes, wrecking them.
It is no uncommon
thing,
as
many
know,
to
have the
of
you
tin
covering pulled off roofs.
Ktie pushe, the *"* down '** a/Mfrwm
But the tin is never pulled **"**"
into
cup without touching the ball
218
old buildings, which
are open because the win
off
dows have been broken
out.
A little neighbor of mine
delights to spring on the
unsuspecting a trick of her
own which depends upon
this reduced pressure
effect of
streams.
moving
The
ball cannot be blown out of the cup
by the stream of air issuing therefrom
air
Sticking a pin
through a visiting card,
she drops the pin into the hole through a spool, and
dares anyone to blow the card off the end of the
spool by blowing through the hole. One can't do it;
to blow hard only makes it stick the closer.
The
the
air
above
card
holds
it
down
on
hard
the
quiet
moving air escaping in a thin stream between the card
and the spool end. If, however, the quiet air above
the card is disturbed by air leaking past the pin, or one
blows over the card, then the card is easily lifted off.
There is abundant evidence that the law applies
equally well to liquids also, explaining the peculiar
behavior of bodies in
moving water.
Why, for example, a log
thrown into a swiftly
running stream
is
quickly
"drawn" to the middle
and rides on the crest of
the freshet, the crest itself
resulting from the same
I think
cause.
iww stream
isvrvu'i/i of
Showing
ujuiy how
uj
r
45
u'tr at
air
ui> ito
'win,
will
hold ball suspended above ground
-i-i
one would
,
-i
-i
naturally expect the log to
219
be pushed aside by the
rushing water.
A
light canoe going
through the rapids does
not collide with the ugly
looking rocks, but
A
is
carried therebetween,
and
comes
if it
safely
through
does not upset.
jet of air cannot hold a square box in
the air stream, as it does a sphere
Every summer we
read of strong swimmers
drowned in the ocean
Into
the
undertow.
outrunning water next to the
smooth sandy bottom the swimmer is pushed and held
down by the relatively motionless water at the surface.
A speed-boat sinks by the stern for the same reason,
the
i.e., the water under the boat is thrust aft by
propeller faster than the surface water, and so the
and deeper as the speed increases.
Buoyant bodies going over a waterfall come to the
surface only in the quiet water of the stream some
stern sinks, deeper
distance away; though a like bolt of wood dropped
endwise into a quiet pond jumps up immediately.
You have
bobbing
all
seen the
ball in the
water
fountain on the lawn. But
do you know that only a
round
ball will stay up?
small square box will
not stay in the stream,
A
whether the jet be water
Walter Johnson
or air.
cannot curve a hexagonal
,
,,
ball;
,T
-r,!
,
nor can the Flettner
Walter Johnson can throw a curve only
w a spherical bail
m
220
ship use rotating square
cylinders to get power out
of the wind.
Did you ever drop a
small marble into the fun
nel-shaped end of the
lawn hose nozzle and dis
cover that the water can
not dislodge
it.
It can't;
Put a
and the more the water
pressure the more resist
ant the marble
to
most
is
card (with a pin in
end of a spool
stiff visiting
on
if)
to dislodgment,
the
which
is
a surprise
folks.
The law
water and
applies as well to two dissimilar fluids,
air, for example, and that is the reason for
the waves on the ocean, which are higher the stronger
the wind. The passing wind lifts the water into a
wave hump slows up the
wave;
this
and as
this robs the air of its lifting
collapses,
releasing the
air
movement;
power, the wave
wind to movement again,
and to again pick up a wave. And this is repeated
over and over again as long as the wind blows.
The steam
believe to
injector,
I
work on exactly
the same principle, al
though
is
I
am aware that it
usually explained other
is the velocity of
wise. It
the water, sucked forward
by contact with the high
velocity steam, that car
the water into the
ries
The card cant be blown off by blowing
through the spool (if the corners of your
mouth don't
the Steam being
i
11
dissipated by condensa-
boiler,
leak)
221
i
sat ion in the cold stream.
may also cap
When one draws
Liquids
ture
air.
a glass of water at the
kitchen sink, the stream
carries air down into the
glass and the glass is filled
with water plus
bles of
Blowing gently across
turned scale
the top of the over
will lift it
which
air,
to the top escape to leave
pan
the glass less than
when
the glass
is
quietly
bub
latter rising
full,
removed from under the
running faucet.
A very simple air-pump is made on this principle,
a pump without moving parts. Vertical pipes are
set under a waterfall, and the water capturing the
air carries it down the pipes, to be collected in a
chamber below, the air pressure being proportional
to the height of the waterfall, and the area of the
water exit from the chamber.
grain-elevator man employs this same prin
ciple to move tons of wheat, by pouring a stream of
The
it onto a swiftly running flat belt conveyer.
The
wheat humps
itself
up
into a ridge in the middle
of the belt as soon as it
takes
up the
belt speed;
not a grain falls off.
This law also explains
why
air
soaring birds ride the
with
little effort.
The
noted for this
though he
i-i
SOarS tOO high tor COneagle
is
gift of nature,
The forward stroke sustains the pigeons;
the backward stroke advances them
222
Cross sections of eagle's wing showing camber of wing
But seagulls and the albatross
perform low, where their movements can be studied
easier.
Into the wind each seems to advance with
out effort, going up and ahead on motionless wings.
On occasions when the wind is blowing from the
Canadian side down into the gorge just below the
venient observation.
at Niagara, one often
observe gulls glide
into this down-air stream and be carried out of the
gorge, up over the edge into the wind.
The thick leading edge of the bird's wing with its
eddy-forming hollow underneath, just behind the
falls
may
bone, tends to slow up the air stream below, while
the "down hill" slope of the smooth upper surface of
the wing increases the wind velocity above.
So
with the air movement increased above and retarded
The Langley tandem monoplane wtih cambered wings
223
Afax. Ord.~,
Max. Ordinate-''
Max.
Oraf..
Diagrams show increased depth of cord for increased
lift
below we find a great upward pull on the wing.
More than 90 per cent of the support of the bird
is in the air passing above the wings, while the air
beneath, slipping out from under the bent-up
of the wings tips, propels him forward.
Professor Langley incorporated this hump on top
of the wing of all his models, but whether or not he
feathers
copied from the outstretched wings of the soaring
had mounted
do not know.
eagle he
I
for his study of aerodynamics,
It is now well understood by the designer of gliders,
as well as powered planes, that 75 to 80 per cent of
the lift of the plane is obtained from the air passing
over the wing, and but 25 to 20 per cent of lift from
air striking underneath.
And an increase in the
camber of the aerofoil increases the lift; and so we
find planes designed for carrying
heavy loads have
very thick wings.
Santa Maria with engines so high the whole
the wings
224
ream passes
over
Speed boat with submerged propeller sinks by
the
stern
With the lift proportional to the air speed above
the wing, one naturally concludes that the greatest
lift and the greatest fuel economy should result from
passing the whole of the propeller
the aerofoils.
And
such
slip -stream
above
The
the case.
British light -plane distance-and-fuel-economy contests of 1923 were won
by monoplanes with the propeller elevated on stilts
until the
is
whole of the
slip
stream passed above the
wings.
The Italian-built flying boat, Santa Maria, in
which Col. Marchese de Pinedo flew from Italy to
South America; over to Savannah, Georgia; across
the United States and back again; and thence home,
a 30,000-mile trip, had all his motors located high
above the wings.
His fuel economy
was surprising.
The great
60-
passenger German
Dornier has its
Flat
belt
motors similarly
Here in
placed.
America W6 don't
for grain conveyor
225
yet built to economize on gasoline it's too cheap.
To those research laboratories now experimenting
on
jet propulsion for aircraft instead of the usual
I suggest that, whether jet propulsion
propeller,
may
or not, the jet will lift more if the air
directed across the top of the aerofoil. So
is sufficient
stream
is
be just as great, while the
be more than if the stream is directed be
directed, the thrust will
lift
will
neath the wing.
In 1894 I patented a camera through which I am
running 200 feet of motion picture negative film per
The mechanical problem of moving the
second.
and the
problem of sufficient exposure,
were readily enough solved, but I worked for twenty-
film,
optical
five years before I learned to successfully hold the
film in the exact focus of the lens during exposure;
when
the film at that speed contacted with the
light tension spring members usual in other cameras,
the film would catch fire. But in time I found that
for
film
moving 200 feet a second attracts air to its
and holds it with "bulldog" tenacity. So
surfaces
my problem by building a narrow channel
the film should pass in the focus of
which
through
the lens, held exactly in the middle of the channel
by the film of air clinging to each face of the motion
picture negative. The camera has worked perfectly
I solved
ever since.
very plain when we remember the law,
i.e., that the pressure is always toward the rapidly
moving body; and that this force is increasingly
It
is
all
powerful as the difference in velocity increases.
I believe engineers generally will find many useful
applications for this phenomena when they come to
think of
it
as familiarly as they do other physical
226
laws
the law of gravitational acceleration, for ex
ample.
So now we know why
flags flutter. With the elastic
the bunting moves to the
down
the
sides
air passing
The hump thus formed slows up the
fastest side.
flow of air on that side, and the bunting moves over
into the swifter air of the other side. This hump in
turn slows up the air on that surface and the action
is repeated, over and over again, as long as the wind
And
with the air moving down opposite
sides of the bunting in alternating pulses, the flag
blows.
moves from
so,
side to side in successive
waves down
its
length from staff to trailing edge. The stream of
elastic air makes humps and hollows in the bunting,
waving or
is
fluttering the flag as the
wind
is
gentle or
strong.
And
proud
it
is
thus "Old Glory"
staff.
227
flies
from many a
Evolution of Civilization
C. FRANCIS JENKINS
We do not know how or whence life came upon this
earth.
The assumption
cell in
that
all life
began with "a single
the ooze" of a preglacial sea does not seem
explanation of observed phenomena.
sufficient
For
then
it
if
came from the same cell,
new species
between any two of them.
all
the species
should be easy to propagate a
by crosses
But such attempts at crosses have invariably re
The product is always sterile.
sulted in failure.
The new line ends with the first offspring. For
examples, the mule, the carideer, the catelo, the
Scientists produce variants in
zebrule, the tigon.
species, but never a new species.
came from a single cell where did the cell
come from, and what caused the separation into
10,000,000 different species, extinct and living, from
microbe to mastodon? Why more than one species
If all life
from one cell?
To assume the evolution of the red rose, the honey
bee, the eel and the giraffe on the single cell hypoth
esis strains credulity, no matter how many millions
of years are assigned to evolution.
All life reproduces its species, lives its allotted span,
and dies; whether it be the minute cell of typhoid
fever or the African elephant.
To sustain the single cell theory
also necessary
to introduce migrations to populate the earth. But
except for man there has been little migration of
living things.
229
it is
It
is
far
millions of
more
logical,
life cells,
and
biological,
if
we assume
each starting and developing
particular species of plant, fish, reptile, bird,
beast, each with its own discrete cell beginning,
its
and
and
not necessarily simultaneously. A separate habitat
for each, in widely separated locations, is not then
illogical, and proof of a world-wide migration is not
needed.
And a plurality of widely scattered cells would
also explain the difference in the staple grain food
of the two hemispheres; namely, why wheat should
be the native grain of the eastern hemisphere and
maize the native grain of the western hemisphere.
If primitive man had migrated to the western
hemisphere from the wheat growing eastern hemi
sphere, he would have brought his grain seed with him.
find maize the staple grain in the western
But we
hemisphere.
But whether
life
had a
single or a multiple cell
beginning, one does not study man very long before
it is evident that man is not an evolutionary animal
Man sprang from a distinct sperm; he is
product.
not a descendant from a monkey in spite of a simi
larity of skeletal form.
Certainly scientists are
not in agreement on this
evolutionary theory. Among eminent scientists there
that man was ever arboreal; or
otherwise than upright. The
walked
that he ever
Darwinian theory, accepted so long, is waning in the
minds of many. The "missing link" has not been
are those
who deny
found, because it never existed.
An occasional embryonic tail, which later is ab
sorbed and disappears, does not prove man a de
scendant of a monkey, any more than a skeletal
230
resemblance does. The monkey does not lose his
The frog is born with a tail which he later loses.
tail.
one
then facetiously inquire if man descended
May
from a frog, or is a frog descended from a monkey?
To many students the contention that man's
attainments are those made possible by evolution
from an animal is ridiculous. We have no animal
from which a spiritual being like man could have
come by evolution.
As for myself, I
prefer to study man as a living
being in considering his relation to other mammals,
rather than limit
study to bleached bones of
my
questionable origin.
The
why
following are
I conclude
some
man
is
of the
preponderant reasons
not an evolutionary animal
product.
Man invents tools.
Man alone uses fire.
Man burys his dead.
Man has a commerce and trade.
Man draws pictures, and can read and write.
Man is a spiritual being, and believes in a life
after
death.
Man
worships a power outside himself; and builds
altars and temples for such worship. No animal does
any
of these things.
is found in all quarters of our earth.
Man
beast, bird, fish
but
man is
Man
is
and
reptile has
not limited to
its
Every
particular habitat;
localities.
constantly increasing in numbers; no other
living thing
is
so increasing.
Man
has a civilization, a civilization developing in
exact proportion to the development of his collection
of tools.
231
There has been no evolution of man, but only an
evolution of his tools; e.g., an alphabet, the three
hammer, the transit, etc.
Man is no more clever today than was earliest
historic man. Beyond history we can only guess, but
we are guided in our guess of what happened before
records were kept by what has happened since then.
Our earliest records are the tools and picture
writing of a time as far away as twenty thousand
R's, a
years.
The Sumerians
of ten
varied collection of tools
thousand years ago had a
showing surprising artistic
merit.
The Cretans almost
as early
had many
of our
con
veniences: corsets, flounces, festivals, writing, baths,
and bronze plumbing, the work of trained artisans
who produced
objects of beauty
and symmetry, as
well as utility.
Egyptian exploration has disclosed an organized
civilization as early as eight thousand years ago, with
tool makers and tool users of a cleverness unsurpassed
to this day.
may be defined as collective social
our civilization probably began
then
development
with the expansion of the family unit, at first prob
If civilization
ably for the protection which numbers afford.
The head of the family was usually the father of
all the children of the family for several generations,
the mothers being his sisters, his daughters, and their
maids. Biblical history refers to this "multitude of
sons and daughters" as the tribe or house; e.g., "the
tribe of Abraham," "the house of David."
This was the custom of the time. The Pharaohs of
Egypt perpetuated the family
232
line
by marrying
their
sisters; a development of a ruling family head into
the ruling head of a nation.
The longer the unbroken reign of this kingly line
the more the arts enlarged and the more civilization
developed.
But sumptuous living ultimately undermined the
keen judgment and physical vigor of the rulers,
exposing the kingdom to successful attack by covet
ous barbarians.
Such conquests resulted
in the destruction of
of the tools of civilization,
many
and death to many
The
those skilled in the use of these tools.
of
artisans,
and workmen who escaped were made
slaves of the new rulers, whose direction was prompt
ed by a knowledge of a far less varied collection of
tools, and so civilization was set back by centuries,
to begin again its slow climb to an even more ad
vanced development by the time of the next conquest.
builders
Civilization has several times been thus built
and destroyed within recorded
history.
there has been a residue of tools and
resulted in a greater advance
by man
up
But always
skill
which has
before disaster
again overtook him.
And as the accumulation of tools enlarged, the lot
of the common man has improved, and man's cruelty
to his fellow
man
has softened.
He takes
less
pleasure
which cause pain, bloodshed, and death.
Wherever machine tools are used the common
man's labor is lightened, his work time shortened,
and his standard of living raised.
America has more machinery than any other
country, and so America is the envied workplace of
the world. In no other country is the workman so
well fed, clothed, housed, and entertained.
in sports
233
The value
machines per capita
in the United
Great Britain;
more than ten times that in India; and more than
thirty times that in China; and the common man's
States
is
of
more than twice that
in
lot in these several countries similarly
corresponds
to these ratios.
With increase in machines the product of the
worker's hands has so enlarged that from 18 hours of
labor, 6 hours of sleep, no hours of play, and seven
days a week, he has already arrived at 8 hours of
work, 8 hours of play, and 8 hours of sleep, six days
a week; and as more tools are invented still further
changes will be made, increasing leisure and its
attendant problems.
In all ages man's collective activities with tools
have been directed by men of constructive minds;
and necessarily so, but often to cruelly selfish ends.
But the collective activities of today are directed
by men of broader vision, and more and more to the
common good of all, including the workers them
selves.
It
can continue in no other way.
The most of us, the toilers, can be directed to our
own and the common good only by such trained
minds most
successfully by those themselves familiar
with the use of the tools involved in collective activi
;
ties.
But with
increasing leisure resulting from increas
ing use of machines, the common man's estate is
continually more and more the affair of the man
agerial
mind who
Those who are
installs the
machines.
in charge of the great
machinized
enterprises must, sooner or later, undertake the care
of their workers as scrupulously as they care for
their dividends.
Dollars can
234
lie
dormant, but
human
beings must have food, clothing and shelter
time.
Bread
lines
all
the
we have always had, but never
before has this condition been considered
by the
public so much a corporate disgrace as at the present
time.
The heads of some of our great enterprises
recognize their responsibility in the matter and are
already
engaged
sympathetically
plans accordingly. Many more
in
working out
will ultimately decide
a better policy to cut dividends than to cut
wages, and to lay off dollars rather than to lay off
it
is
workers.
The measure
of our civilization
is
the degree of
and well-being
of the whole people. This
attained in a constantly increasing de
gree with the increase in the tools of production,
tranquillity
condition
is
distribution,
cation,
and
communication,
transportation,
recreation, for civilization
You
is
edu
directly the
Then
product
try to imagine a civilization without tools and work
men who know how to use them.
The evolution of our tools, and the tranquillity of
those who use them, is a direct index of our civiliza
of the artisan.
tion,
and always
will be.
235
don't believe it?
Note: As Washington
is
the birthplace of more rev
olutionary inventions, upon
which great industries have
been built, than any other
ten-mile territory, it may
be interesting, and appro
priate, to add here a re
count by Mr. Jenkins of
Washington's claims to in
tellectual stimulus.
EDITOR.
Washington, the City of
Enchantment
Broadcast from
WCAP,
September 26, 1924
C. FRANCIS JENKINS
WASHINGTON
Government but
is
the
home
of
our
Federal
more than that
it is a delight
work, a stimulus to excellence in mental
activity. Those of us who had wandered about more
;
it is
ful place to
or less aimlessly before we discovered Washington
well understand how its genial climate called forth
the Presidential praise of our honor guest from the
cool, green hills of
Add
Vermont.
charm of
and
one
Washington's setting,
appreciates why,
from the Executive Mansion outward to the very
to the delight of the climate, the
rim of federal activity,
leaving
office.
all
remain,
Woodrow Wilson
they can, after
stayed here until
if
President Harding was hurrying
home when his end came. The only living ex-presi
dent resides in the District.
he passed away.
237
Abraham Lincoln was
it is
loath to leave Washington,
and so preferred a summer cottage in the
Home Grounds, as did many of his suc
rather than a more elaborate executive
said,
Soldiers'
cessors,
residence
elsewhere,
while the White House
was
annual dressing.
getting
now occupied by the Cosmos Club,
house
In the
Dolly Madison ruled social Washington in such a
scintillating setting that even the widows of presi
dents, with few exceptions, have made their later
its
homes
here.
Nor
strange, for this is the city the unequaled
which was worked out with such loving care
by Major Charles L'Enfant, as he leaned over a
drawing board in his home near the old Tudor
is it
plan of
Mansion; the parks of the plan later beautified by
the landscape gardener, Andrew J. Downing.
And this magnificent dream city had the proper
antecedents, too, for it was from this very site the
old Indian chief Powhatan ruled his own vast
territory before ever the white man had set up the
capital of a nation dedicated to peace and oppor
tunity.
Many eminent statesmen and great orators have
found Washington environs so satisfying that they
have spent their last years within this forest-like
city.
The
inimitable
Henry Clay was buried here
in
1852; Elbridge Gerry, a signer of the Declaration of
Independence, lies in the Congressional Cemetery;
and John Lee
Carroll, a former
Governor
of
Mary
his last resting place in a local graveyard.
in Washington as the head of the Federal
land, found
It
was
Party that that distinguished orator, Daniel Web
ster, made his indelible impress on American history.
238
In the old "Union Tavern," on a site now occupied
by a large apartment building, one could have found
hobnobbing with resident genius, in that early
yesterday, such guests as Louis Phillipe, Count
Valney, Lord Lyons, Baron Humboldt, Charles
Talleyrand, Jerome Bonaparte, Washington Irving,
Charles Dickens, General St. Clair, Lorenzo Dow,
John Randolph, and perhaps Charles Goodyear, when
he was asking for a patent for vulcanizing rubber.
Even the dashing Robert E. Lee, leaving his
ancestral home overlooking Washington, rode regret
fully away to duty in his beloved South.
One may perhaps concede that associations would
attract retired admirals and generals to a residence
Admirals Evans, Dewey, Schley, Sampson,
Peary, and Generals Greely, Crook, Wheeler, Miles
here
and Pershing, within my own unprompted memory.
But what is the secret which brings back to Washing
ton those who have looked upon the enchanting
spots of our wonderful country; the three Johns,
John C. Freemont, the great northwest
pathfinder; John W. Powell, explorer of the Grand
for example,
Canon
of the Colorado;
John A. Sutter, discoverer
of
gold in California.
Even Governor Shepherd, who made Washington,
and afterward was practically banished to Mexico,
prayed that he might be brought back to the city
of his dreams, and his wish gratified, he lies at rest
amid the grassy slopes of Rock Creek Cemetery.
It was ever thus; even stubborn old Davy Burns
must have thought well of Washington for he brought
from his native land not only a charming daughter
but the bricks with which he builded the chimney of
a cottage for her, and from whose humble door this
239
went to a haughty family and a
mansion as the wife of Major General Van Ness.
Not only from official life, but from all fields of
activity, the capital city attracts to itself an unusual
aggregation of mentality scientific and literary and
Scottish lassie later
industrial.
Poets and great writers, noted scientists and re
nowned inventors have done their best work in the
invigorating atmosphere of the capital, washed clear
by the mist of the Great Falls of the Potomac.
It was here Francis Scott Key lived when he wrote
"The Star Spangled Banner," a spot marked by the
new memorial bridge just completed; here Harriet
Beecher Stowe wrote that immortal story, "Uncle
Tom's Cabin"; Walt Whitman the first edition of his
"Leaves of Grass"; James Bryce "The American
Commonwealth"; and Owen Meredith his "Lucile."
In a rose-covered cottage on the heights overlook
ing the river, across from the Arlington National
Cemetery, Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth wrought;
and in a less flowery abode impecunious Edgar Allan
Poe wrote much of his "spooky stuff."
Looking down upon the city from the east, John
Howard Payne, in tranquil contentment, on his
return from a sojourn in a foreign land, wrote the one
song which will never die, "Home, Sweet Home."
In isolated serenity in Rock Creek Park stands the
cabin of Joaquin Miller, "the poet of the Sierras,"
now the shrine of the artist as well as the writer.
Across Lafayette Park, opposite the White House,
George Bancroft, the great historian, calmly laid
down
his
pen
in his 91st year
and passed
to his
great reward.
And
it
was here that the painter James McNeill
240
Whistler began his climb to an
artistic,
world-re
nowned fame.
As for science, why Washington is the scientific
center of the world. More revolutionary discoveries
which have been the foundations of great industries
have been made in the District of Columbia than any
other ten miles square in all the world.
It was here that the great Joseph Henry spent the
most prolific period of his sixty years of usefulness.
On the bosom of Rock Creek, Fulton first floated
the model of his steamboat, the Clermont; and on
the Potomac River, Professor Langley tested out
the aerodynamic principles upon which all airplanes
are built, and at a time when the "flying machine"
was a subject not mentioned
in elite scientific circles.
In the observatory on Cathedral Heights, that
great astronomer, Simon Newcomb, worked; and,
nearby, Cleveland Abbe, the famous meteorologist,
published the first daily weather reports.
Between Washington and Baltimore, Professor
S.
F. B. Morse, in 1844, put his telegraph to work, the
telegraph operator being Theodore N. Vail,
Dr.
late president of the A. T. & T. Company.
first
Graham
Bell perfected his telephone here, Professor
the wax cylinder phonograph, and
Berliner the talking machine.
Both the typecasting machines, the linotype
Tainter
Mr.
and
monotype, were invented in the District; and here
a stenographer in the Life Saving Service invented
the first motion picture machine, the prototype of
the projector used in every picture theatre the world
over to this very day.
From the hills of Virginia across the river, the first
wireless message ever transmitted was sent into
241
Washington; and from Washington to Philadelphia
the first photographs by radio were sent.
When the Daughters of the American Revolution
sought a permanent home no place could successfully
compete with the charm of Washington; and here
also the American Red Cross and the Pan American
Union
set
up
their respective domiciles.
In Kendall Green Park, in the northeast section of
the city, the Columbia Institute for the Deaf was
set up, the only institution of its kind in the world,
the gift of Gallaudet to the afflicted.
It
was
W illiam
T
in
Washington that another philanthropist,
Corcoran, built the Louise Home for
Southern gentlewomen, as well as the Corcoran Art
Gallery, the latter a gift to the city. He was laid
away
W.
Oak
Hill Cemetery, the resting place of an
gathering of distinguished Americans.
in
unequaled
In the north of the city is the Walter Reed Hos
pital, named in honor of Dr. Walter Reed, who hero
ically risked his life to
prove that yellow fever germs
were communicated by mosquitos.
The Carnegie Institute "for the encouragement
of
and
discovery," and the
Carnegie Geophysical Laboratory are both located
here.
In Washington the Geographic Society was estab
investigation,
research
and
the unique Geographic Magazine is
here the beautiful home for the
and
published;
lished,
National
Academy
of Science has just
been dedi
cated.
atmosphere of Washington works its
resident as well as those who stop here
on
witchery
but briefly, a mental stimulus of no uncertain
potency; and as for scenic beauty, it is unequaled
So
the
242
and getting more beautiful and more attractive
all
the time.
As
above the city
are hidden under
with
a criss-cross of green trees,
the superb white
dome of the Capitol standing out above the verdure
in majestic splendor; and over to the west the
Lincoln Memorial, looking for all the world like a
jewel box of alabaster. And on the rim of the mist
beyond stands a bowl-like marble amphitheater
keeping watch over the grave of the Unknown
Soldier, while still farther around to the north looms
the great National Cathedral on Mount St. Albans,
where lies "the man of peace."
I fly
And
it
was
its streets
this inspiring sight that greeted the
homeward bound, round-the-world
flyers as they
over
the
to
in
a
glided
landing
city
Boiling Field.
An
annual pilgrimage to this mecca of glorious
and
wondrous present, with its wealth of white
past
buildings, its miles of park roads, its spring cherry
blossoms and autumn colors is always inspiring.
From whatever point of view, Washington well
deserves the pride of possession of all worthy Ameri
cans.
243
The
Picture of Peace
Broadcast from
WNAC,
Boston, December 28, 1923
C. FRANCIS JENKINS
Since the beginning of time the advance in
progress has been determined by two factors
human
trans
portation and communication.
in
These have resulted
continually lengthening periods of peace, and
constantly widening areas of tranquillity.
At first man ruled with a club from his doorway, he
was constantly on the defense, and his cave was his
sole place of safety.
But cautiously venturing about
he became more familiar with those near his abode,
and his terrors were somewhat allayed. As he still
further widened his contact with more distant neigh
bors,
tory
signals and better means of travel, his terri
of free movement was still further enlarged.
by
had expanded from a single nucleus,
and one language, it would have tended largely to
universal and enduring peace. But there were many
nuclei, and many languages, and so suspicion and
hatred endured. For it is the stranger whose lan
If this process
guage is not understood that we instinctively regard
Wars between unlike tongues have
as an enemy.
been far more frequent than civil wars; and war is
destructive and disarranging, while peace is con
and makes for progress.
There is no doubt whatever that the more speedy
and complete the facilities for transportation and
communication, the greater is the assurance of peace.
structive
The
airplane
swiftly
strange countries,
and, therefore,
less
carries
the
traveler
making the stranger
an enemy.
245
into
less strange,
Radio is doing the same thing for communication.
It broadens and speeds up intercourse, similarly
making the stranger's personality familiar because
of the frequent contact, and therefore less a menace.
We are afraid of the silence and of the dark of
what we do not see. To know quiets our fears, just
as light in dark places makes dark places safer.
For this reason, pictures, which speak a universal
language, tend greatly toward universal peace, by
making people better acquainted.
When, then, onto the boundless range
is
of the radio
grafted the world-wide appeal of the picture, the
means of communication would seem to have
ideal
been attained.
This is the goal of the
activities of a
modest
little
laboratory in Washington, the director of which,
thirty years ago, invented the original motion picture
projecting machine
now used
in every theatre the
world over.
With
this
foundation of thirty years of experience
it is not surprising that this station is
to build upon,
now
successfully transmitting Pictures by Radio,
over considerable distances, already 135 miles. With
in the limits of the laboratory, Radio Vision, the
ability to see in one place what is happening in a
is also a daily demonstration.
Galileo's telescope enables us to see to great dis
tances, but only away off into space, for our vision
distant place,
through the telescope
With
the radio
therefore,
we can
is
limited to straight lines.
we can
see along
curved
lines;
around obstructions, and over
one day may even see around
see
mountain ranges
the earth. For as we are now seeing over short disances with a low power radio station, it naturally
246
follows that as development lengthens the reach of
the radio, so the range of our Radio Vision will in
crease.
Our President may then look on the
King of England, as he talks with him;
face of the
or
upon the
countenance of the President of France, when ex
changing assurances of mutual esteem.
The Chiefs of Staff of our Navy and Army may see
at headquarters all that a lens looks upon as it is
carried aloft in a scouting airplane. "The eyes of the
fleet" will then be more than just a figure of speech.
And when the Shenandoah carries our flag over
the North Pole next summer, the Secretary of the
Navy, in his office, with invited guests, might see all
that those see who are aboard this great airship, if
the craft should be suitably equipped.
And very soon now, when the Radio- Visor-set-forthe-Home shall have been sufficiently developed,
folks in California and in Maine, and all the way be
tween, will be able to see the inaugural ceremonies
of our President, in Washington; the Army and
Navy football games at Franklin Field; the struggle
for supremacy in our national sport, baseball; and
both see and hear grand opera broadcast from the
theatre anywhere.
Perhaps at this point the lads and
my
listeners
may
like
lassies
among
a brief explanation of the
methods by which these objects are to be attained,
although I shall not attempt a technical description.
But have you never put a nickle under a piece of
paper and by drawing straight lines across it with
a very dull pencil made a picture of the Indian
appear? Well, now, that isn't so very different from
the way we do it. In place of the pencil we draw
247
parallel lines across the white surface with the
of a small light.
When
the machine
is
image
turned over slowly this
little
light looks for all the world like a tiny twinkling star
as it travels across the white surface changing in its
light values to correspond in intensity to the light
values of the scene before the lens at the broadcasting
station.
But when the machine
speeded up until the
succession of lines recur with a frequency that de
ceives the eye into the belief that it sees all these
is
then suddenly a picture flashes
out on the screen in all the glory of its pantomime
lines all the time,
mystery.
And the apparatus
is
very simple, too, for we, the
and young men, my assistants, have
more a matter of learning how than
of intricate apparatus.
For the reception of picture
there is only a little box, the wires of which you
attach to the head phone binding posts of your re
ceiving set, and which contains nothing but a small
motor rotating a pair of glass discs; and a miniature,
young
ladies
found that
is is
high frequency lamp for outlining the pantomime
picture on the screen.
When
these machines are available to
all of
you,
then motion pictures at the fireside, broadcast from
some distant station, will be the evening's entertain
ment, and perhaps the daily source of news; the
long day of the sick and shut-ins will be more endur
able, and life in the far places will be less lonely, for
the flight of the Radio Picture is not hindered by rain,
or sleet, or
snow blockades.
Am I too optimistic? I hardly think so. It is not
with cold reason that the possibilities of a new
248
discovery in science and invention may be gauged.
Professor Langley went to his grave a martyr to
his isolated belief in the heavier
than
air
machine,
more than a decade later Lieutenant
though
Stone, of the Coast Guard Service, piloted the U. S.
Navy plane, NC-4, across the ocean, from America
little
to England.
Dr. Bell found scant reception for his telephone at
the Philadelphia Centennial, though today there
are 150,000,000 of them in daily use.
In 1896 a road race for horseless carriages
was held
near Chicago over a 20-mile course.
There were
three entrants, and one of them actually made the
distance before sunset.
pictures are being transmitted by radio every
over
day,
greater or lesser distances; some weeks ago
they were sent from a Navy Station in Washington
to the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.
Still
And Radio Vision, which is only a speeding up of
the same mechanism slightly modified, is a matter
of daily laboratory demonstration, now.
Is it not, then, within the limits of reasonable
expectation that the near future will fulfill the pre
dictions just
made, when we
may
freely look directly
upon the activities of the great outside world from
our comfortable chairs by the fireside?
249
The Value of a Hobby
Address, Meris Club, Calvary Methodist Church, Washington, D. C.
C. FRANCIS JENKINS
When
horseless vehicles first
came
to
town
I lived
on a street leading up out of the park. Through that
summer, as theretofore, Mrs. Jenkins and I often
sat out front and watched across the valley the chang
and gold of the sunset.
But every now and then our reveries would be
broken by an old one-lunger trying to make the grade.
You remember the kind; engine underneath, cranked
from the seat, steered with a tiller, and you watched
ing glow of the pink
the road over a beautifully curved dash, a copy of
a fashion plate toboggan sled. They were short on
power, those old busses, but long on noise, and their
negotiation of the grade was an ever recurring
mechanical tragedy. One always thought that this
time they would surely make it, but they never
smart speed, with
confidence, at the foot of the hill, they
would get slower and slower until at last, near the
top, they would go into low with such a distressing
quite did.
Running
in high gear, at
delightful
would wring pity from a stone.
has often seemed to me that many men are like
final effort as
It
that old "one-lunger." As long as they find easy w^ork,
one cylinder is enough, and they go blissfully along
drawing a satisfying pay envelope every Saturday.
But when hard times come, and the force is cut, they
find their one vacation is not enough to get them
over the grade without distress. If, however, he has
spent some of his leisure hours in recreational study,
the loss of position does not embarrass him over much.
251
know a machinist who
I
lost his place last spring
because of failure of the firm he worked for. This
workman, for several summers past, had been growing
In time he became
flowers about his little place.
very fond of them, and so took up the study of
botany. When he lost his position, he began cul
tivating flowers in earnest, selling them where he
used to give them away. He made more money this
past summer with flowers than he did last summer
at his machinist's trade.
Another workman, when his blue envelope day
came, began selling bread his wife made, for she was
a locally famed breadmaker. The trade grew beyond
their equipment, and a small baking machine was
bought; and now he is about to install a second be
cause the
first is
already over-worked.
would add to human blessings and individual
independence if every man had both a vocation and
an avocation; no matter how high or how low his
It
position in our industrial scheme, he should be able
to do more than one thing well.
am
aware that there are those who advocate
specialization, and quote someone as saying that
"If he build a mousetrap better than anyone else,
a path will be worn to his hermit dwelling in the
wood." But if we suppose all the mice are caught,
Mr. Hermit would subsist much better, it seems to
me, if he knew something about gardening as well
I
as
mouse trapping.
I feel that I
for,
although I
human
am entitled to speak with authority,
am engaged in the most hazardous of
occupations,
i.e.,
inventing
for
a
living
(because it sounds so much nicer, I like to call it
research work), nevertheless, in spite of this uncer-
252
my
is such that I look
without timidity.
If to make one's point it were permitted to cite
personal history, I might venture to recount my
own mental and manual endowment, because I
know myself better than I know anyone else, al
though many another country boy has built up a
far wider range of knowledge
perhaps the man at
tain
employment
equipment
forward to the evening of
life
your very elbow.
It was my good fortune, then, to have chosen
farmer forebears, of sturdy Quaker stock, and so
with a natural inquisitiveness, a mechanical intuition,
and a red head,
my
very early to keep
in running order the varied machinery of the farm;
to put coal oil on the mold-board of the plows when
they were set away in the shed for the winter so that
they would scour immediately when put into the
ground in the spring; to fix the mower so that it
would cut the heavy and the down and the tangled
it fell
to
lot
to make the self-binder tie every sheaf of
wheat, missing none; to stop a leak in the crown sheet
of the boiler of the traction engine, and set the slide
valve for lap and lead; to oil the windmill to insure
an amply supple of water for the stock; to keep the
grass;
trip-trigger adjusted on the harpoon fork that put
the hay away, in the big mow. I also learned to create,
build wagons and sleds and miniature railways; to
set deadfalls for
game and
It
steel traps for fur.
I learned the rudiments of weather
was on the farm
cloud and goosebone
lore;
learned which was the
north side of trees, the woodsman's natural compass;
and how that the great dipper would tell me the time
of night. In common with other farm boys, I knew
the habits of bird, and beast, and fish, and, of
253
course, could ride well,
and could shoot
And
by
as learning is only adding a
day, to one's store of knowledge,
that, later,
when
I left
home
straight.
more, day
any wonder
little
is it
to see the world, even
while I was yet a lad, that I found the activities
of the great logging camps of Oregon and Washington
were not so strangely different from our work in
clearing the Indiana farm; that mining silver in
the Southwest rather resembled well-digging back
home; that the great mills were simply enlargements
of machinery with w hich I was already acquainted,
r
most new things simply old familiar principles
put together in a new way. I didn't have to lay
awake nights to figure out the mechanics of "broncoor like
busting," or to practice very long before, riding range,
I could rope and brand cows, and cook jerked meat
on a hot stone.
When
bunk-houses, I found the work and
when, only a little
hammer and saw.
I found the construction of an irrigation dam in the
desert unexciting, for hadn't I already builded mud
I built
carpenter tools just the same as
tyker, I built dog kennels with
dams and waterwheels between the
old
clay banks of
Deer Creek.
Even surveying and running levels, while requiring
somewhat more accurate instruments, was very much
like the fun we used to have sighting across the tops
two pins stuck in the ends of a shingle floating
on a pan of water; nor was the installation of electrical
machinery totally strange to the boy who had strung
a wire to a neighbor's house and set up a telegraph
Neither was I surprised
instrument at each end.
when I found the locomotive familiarly like our old
traction engine, the evening I enticed away the watch-
of
254
man
at the railhead, so that I might borrow the
locomotive and take my prairie playmate for a ride.
And ride, why, I've taken her, perhaps there have
been more than one of her, rides in buggies, and
and motor
sleighs, and toboggans; on bicycles,
cycles, and automobiles; in canoes, and sail boats,
and ice boats, and motor boats; and even flying
machines.
And, by the way, that
am
for I
I
told flying
is
became an accredited
that I
man
am
last is a comforting notation,
a young man's game, and as
pilot after I
was
fifty, I feel
entitled to consider myself a very
young
yet.
have always been an insatiable reader, and per
haps you will say that this is the explanation. So it
may be, to an extent, for I learned shorthand sitting
on a plow beam while the horses rested, probably
because someone had carelessly left a text-book
lying around where I got hold of it. And shorthand
led to skill on the typewriter, though I vividly re
I
member
I
thought at
my
first
session with the thing,
that some of the letters had been
left off
the key
board.
My
photographic attainments are also without
antecedents,
although from these
came the motion picture, and as a hobby has been
pursued until this past summer we have been making
farm-initiated
pictures at the rate of 3,200 exposures per second,
200,000 per minute.
I drew the architectural plans of our home I am a
designer of machinery, a mechanical draftsman, and
;
a registered patent attorney.
Perhaps there has been an incidental smattering
of financial and executive skill withal, which has
255
relieved me of any very acute financial worries,
but the greatest reward of resourcefulness has been
the pleasure which has attended each new acquisition
my whole life through.
But being resourceful has its drawbacks. When
things are easily done, the doer is inclined to neglect
that milling grind that makes for perfection, and
and subsequent em
I remember that one
barrassment on occasions.
time I jumped my bicycle up some steps into a hall
and began circling the floor showing off my fancy
riding, presently dismounting to receive the thun
this results in over-confidence
derous applause of an admiring audience.
Well, I
and
I
learned
it,
presently
why, for a
ragged chap mounted a frowzy-looking wheel and
began doing things with it that made my riding
didn't get
I think even my bicycle was
sneaked out of there.
Another time I remember, with no very happy
recollection, was my first formal dance;
oh, so very
formal, with bemedaled ambassadors and gilt braided
I had not yet worn
officers in terrifying profusion.
a dress suit long enough to be entirely unconscious
of it, as I recall; and my hands bothered me, they
were so big and no place to put them. And I was
just sure my white tie had slipped around, but I
didn't have the courage to investigate. Altogether
I wasn't getting on very pleasantly, though I did
feel better when the music commenced, for I had a
charming partner with whom it was always a de
Of course, the music had to stop
light to dance.
when I was in the middle of the floor, a mile or so
from the side lines where a thick rug gleefully waited
to trip me up. It was soon over, I suppose, but it
look like thirty cents.
crestfallen as I
256
seemed an age and
Washington was
looking at me as I picked myself up, and besides I
had split the collar band of my new dress shirt.
Well, we just went away from there; though I might
add, perhaps, that my loyal little partner was very
I felt that all of
indignant that they
all
laughed at
my
embarrassing
predicament.
However, I do not mean to imply that everyone
must have as varied an assortment of attainments to
insure smooth sailing through periods of financial
depression, but skill in more than one thing surely
gives more than one opportunity to keep usefully
and profitably employed, and creative work is just
about the most satisfying thing there is.
The World War brought to light the avocational
talent of many a man, and woman, too, for that
matter. I have in mind a young man who regularly
helped his father, a successful builder, in the summer
between scholastic terms, though during the winter
after school hours he repaired automobiles. Another
winter he tended horses and did like chores on a
farm a few miles out of town. When the United
It
States entered the great war he volunteered.
learned
that
he
knew
was soon
concrete work, and
he was transferred to a big ordnance proving ground,
a lieutenant, and put in charge of all road mak
ing, foundations, and other concrete work. He knew
automobiles as well as he did concrete and presently
made
the automobile-and-tank division of the grounds was
added, and with a promotion. And later the stables
with their two hundred horses were also put under his
charge. About this time he was given a chair on the
other side of the desk of the colonel, the post com
mandant, who
also
recommended a captaincy
257
for
him.
The young man's
meteoric, and some
from the ranks was
jealousies developed, but the
rise
colonel, a wise old owl, always stilled criticism by
replying: "If any of you can do any of those things
as well as he can, you may have the command; but
the work must go on." I think you will agree with
me that the young man's advance was due to his
versatility.
Has it ever occurred to you that each of the great
discoveries has been the result of an avocation, a
plaything during rest time
from
monotony of regular employment?
The father of photography was
the task-weary
an army
officer;
of the electric motor, a book-binder's clerk; the in
ventor of the telegraph was a portrait painter; and
the Jacquard loom, a dressmaker.
A farmer
tinkered up the typewriter; a poet, the sewing ma
of
and a coal
The telephone was the
chine; a cabinet maker, the cotton gin;
miner,
the
locomotive.
"after school"
work
of a teacher of the deaf; the disc
talking machine, the night work of a clothing sales
man; the wax cylinder phonograph, of a lawyer's
clerk; and the type-casting machine, a groceryman.
A
physician made the first pneumatic tire, because
his little son was a wheel-chair invalid.
The hand
camera was invented by a bank clerk; the film roll,
by a country preacher; the motion picture, by a
The steam automobile was the
stenographer.
plaything of a photo dryplate maker; the dry-blast
the brain child of a preacher's son;
the tunneling shield, of an editor; and the stock
ticker, a dentist. The long distance telephone loading
coils were figured out by a professor of mathematics;
steel process
bicyle
repairmen made the
258
first
operative
man-
carrying airplane; a soldier the wireless telegraph;
a druggist's clerk, the audion tube for broadcasting
daily news, stock quotations, grand opera,
and the
loud-speaking telephone.
This has been the story of every great invention.
Each has been the result of someone's riding a
hobby, a kindly soul tinkering around in the wood
shed with what the neighbors were pleased to call
his "crazy" idea.
I have also observed that a new thing always
originates in a single brain, usually the brain of a
poor man. It
not the product of great wealth and
a great laboratory. Money only develops, it never
originates; I guess it's because money doesn't work
in a woodshed.
is
encouraging too, for I am led to hope
that I myself may yet do something worth while if
only I stay poor enough, long enough.
May I, then, go back to the original suggestion
don't be a "one-lunger." Be skilled in your vocation,
an expert, even a specialist if you like, but have an
avocation as well. Get a hobby, and ride it. Not
only is it the most satisfying sport there is, but it
And
that
is
holds potential opportunities of immeasurable good
to your fellowman.
A
ful
disposition and a hobby
possibilities are conjured up by
happy
plation of such an
endowment.
159
what wonder
the contem
The
Way
of the Inventor
Address, Bliss Electric School, April, 1916, Reprint in the "Coherer"
July, 1916
C. FRANCIS JENKINS
am
an inventor, a professional inventor, like a
tramp, having no visible means of support. Many a
time my dear old Quaker mother has admonished me
She detested
to "stop messing" and go to work.
the word inventor. So later, when I had learned to
I
make
inventing a gainful occupation, I asked her
for a title. She replied: "Well, thee is a finder-out."
And I guess she wasn't so far wrong at that, for a
finder-out
is
"inquires to
and
my
an investigator, an observer, one who
know." And I think, therefore, that I
kind
may
claim a long line of antecedents,
for certainly Moses was an observer. You remember
the Biblical story of how, returning at evening from
tending the flocks of his father-in-law, he noticed
that a certain bush, which was burning when he
passed in the morning, was not yet consumed, and he
said:
"I will turn aside and see this great sight,
the
bush is not burnt."
why
But
I
think one
may
go even farther back than
we are told that Eve "took fig leaves and
fashioned them aprons." So it seems that a woman
that, for
was the
first
inventor after
all.
And
she did
it
easily
Mrs. Adam had the advantage of a mind
free from cluttering precedents. There were no wheels
too, for
yet to
But
fill
let
for to her
The
is
the inventor's head.
me
we
stop here to pay tribute to the woman,
owe some of our most useful inventions.
printer's roller
is
the snap-fastener.
a woman's invention, and so
The Jacquard loom was
261
in-
vented by Mrs. Jacquard, the sewing machine by
Mrs. Elias Howe, and the cotton gin by Mrs. Greene;
the Whitney story, like many another hastily
written story, was not the whole truth.
The inventor has given you everything you en
Do you wear shoes, clothes, hats and
joy today.
gloves, every one of them is the result of hundreds
patented ideas. Do you visit a friend, it is prob
ably in an inventor's steam train, electric car or
benzine buggy; and you send an advance notice by
of
telephone, telegraph or self-sealing envelope.
even babies are raised on patent foods.
Why,
admit that at times some of us and our
ideas appear crazy, but we don't know it and so we
go blissfully along "wasting" our time inventing
I frankly
telegraphs, telephones, typewriters, harvesting
ma
chines, railway trains, automobiles, steam boats,
printing presses, talking machines, motion pictures,
wireless, and flying machines.
So, go gently, brother, gently, for sometimes I
almost human. At any rate,
he is an optimist. He has to be. A pessimist would
never invent anything, for he would start with the
idea that the thing could not be done anyhow. So
the inventor goes blithely ahead; cold facts do not
think the inventor
disturb him.
He
is
believes that
if
it is
only
difficult
as good as done; if impossible he will require a
little time for its accomplishment.
it is
"finder-out" so far ahead of the crowd,
obliged to blaze his own trail into the unknown,
With the
he
is
for
no one has ever gone before to show the way.
So
his proposition necessarily appears foolish to the
man
is,
And
the more successful the business
the more certainly will the new idea be turned
business man.
262
down. Perhaps he hasn't the prophetic vision neces
sary to be a successful pioneer.
And
here's just as strange a circumstance: a
new
and revolutionary invention almost never interests
an established concern. In the rare cases where a
going concern does take up a new invention
some other line. The early model of a well
it is
in
known
was brought to the Remington gun
factory by a Mr. Dinsmore, a professional man, who
had bought an interest in the joint invention of Mr.
Sholes, a farmer, and Gideon, a junk dealer, and you
know the remainder of that story.
typewriter
New
by men
inventions are almost invariably promoted
of no previous business experience.
The
wax
cylinder phonograph was brought to its present
great business success by a stenographer, the official
reporter at the trial of President Garfield's assassin;
the disc talking machine by an obscure mechanic in
a little alley shop in Camden, N. J. the telephone by
;
an
ex-soldier; the casting machine by a sign-painter.
"Every big business is the lengthened shadow of a
single man."
It is also
an historical fact that the telephone
was offered to the owners of the telegraph interests.
It was very naturally supposed that those engaged
in facilitating communication would be interested
in a better and more rapid means. But they waved
it aside, saying they were engaged in business and
wanted nothing to do with a scientific toy. But the
toy grew until it bought the telegraph company as
an auxiliary feeder.
Invested capital does not develop pioneer inven
I think it is because money is the most timid
thing in all the world. Did you ever hear of a banker
tions.
263
taking a risk?
Why, he makes you put up
collateral for twice the value of
gilt-edged
what you borrow,
and even then takes out the interest before he hesitat
ingly gives you what remains. And you go out of
the awful presence on tip-toe, feeling somehow very
like
it
a
thief.
Money
does not develop inventions;
takes courage and vision to do that.
Edward A. Guest has put it thus:
"There are thousands to tell you it can't be done,
There are hundred to prophesy failure,
There are dozens to enumerate, one by one.
The dangers that wait to
But just buckle in with a
And
take
off
assail
you;
bit of a grin,
your coat and go to
it;
Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing
That cannot be done
And who
And
you'll
do
it."
are the discovers of great inventions?
They are almost invariably not persons engaged in a
kindred line of employment. This probably is be
cause each knows nothing about the subject in which
he essays to invent, and dares rush in where knowing
ones hesitate. The inventor of the telephone was a
teacher of the deaf; of the telegraph a portrait
painter; of the disc talking machine a clothing sales
man;
man;
monotype casting machine a grocerythe motion picture projecting machine a
of the
of
stenographer; of the pneumatic tire a physician; of
the kodak a bank clerk; of the film roll a country
preacher; the steam automobile a photo dry plate
maker; the tunneling shield an editor; the dry -blast
a preacher's son; the stock ticker a
dentist the long distance telephone loading coils a pro
fessor of mathematics; the airplane bicycle repairmen.
steel process
;
264
More patents have been taken out on farm machin
ery than on any other class of instruments, near
fifty thousand, but only a few of them by farmers.
They have been inventing in other lines. The type
writer
was a farmer's invention.
Remember
am
talking of epoch-making discov
eries, not patented improvements on other inventions.
For if one may call an inventor anyone who takes
I
out a patent, then, like the rabbit, he is a prolific
type, and like the rabbit, anybody can take a pot
shot at him, anywhere and anytime, there
is
no
closed season for either of them.
The
first
man
to take a shot at us
is
the mail-order
patent attorney. There's a pot of gold at the end of
the rainbow he paints. We simply can't lose. "No
patent, no fee." That is, we can't lose the patent, for
he is a poor attorney indeed who can't persuade the
Government to give us some sort of a paper with a
blue ribbon and a big red seal. But surely none of
you believes there is a fortune made out of each of
the fifty thousand patents issued yearly by the
Patent Office.
Of course, your particular patent is the exception,
for proof of it you could point to letters received,
immediately on the issue of your patent, from enter
prising persons asking if you would be willing to
take $100,000 for it. They say it is at least worth
that, and they will gladly undertake its sale for you
at no cost whatever, if only you will send them
$7.50 to illustrate a description of it.
(The illus
tration later proves to be a small zinc etching costing
13 cents.) So your patient wife lets you pawn her
wedding ring, and you send the money. She had
already put up her mother's watch for the patent fees.
265
It
was one
smooth gentry who first pro
that an unnamed brewer would
of these
mulgated the fiction
pay a million dollars for a nonrefillable bottle. The
attorney wore hoofs and horns, and had a lively
progeny.
I talk like I
had taken the
full course,
don't I?
Well, I have, and a post-graduate course also.
I am now about ready to believe I have learned
of the fundamentals.
First, then, don't
But
some
waste time
and money offering a really great invention to those
who ought to buy it. They won't. Second, don't
go for financial aid to a monied man. He has only
money.
On
the other hand, be on your guard, for if your
invention is good, you are likely, sooner or later, to
meet a prosperous looking gentleman who sym
pathizes with you, says he believes in you, and you
sign a contract with him and go to work to develop
the invention, your time against the money he sup
When you have the thing almost completed,
plies.
and need only a little more, the promoter advises
he will put up no more money, although, as a matter
of fact, he has never put up any, the little cash in
volved coming from the friends you introduced him to.
The business is then sold for debt, and you find you
have the experience while the promoter has the more
tangible assets. You also learn that you have made
enemies of your friends who bought stock because
the promoter looked like a million dollars, and you,
the inventor, were known to be honest.
Or perhaps the patented article is exploited with
out your consent. One day an inventor found out
that a gas-stove patented by him was being marketed.
T
hen he called on the makers and showed them the
W
266
patent, they laughed
as he
went
out.
Now
and asked him to
as a
boy
close the door
this inventor
had been
red headed and, while the red had mostly disappeared
from his hair, the fight was still under it. So he laid
the matter before a friend, who, for a half interest,
sued the infringers, and got judgment and an ac
The market for the article being already
made, another company promptly bought the right
counting.
and continued the business on royalty, with every
body happy but the infringer.
Another time the same inventor placed a patent
on royalty with a big manufacturing concern in a
Three years later, unable to get any
distant city.
the contract over to an attorney
he
turned
remittance,
with instruction to begin suit. The attorney was
crooked and sold the contract to the company for
his own profit. This time everybody was happy but
the inventor.
Of course, some of you will get a bona fide offer
your patent, perhaps one out of the eight hundred
issued weekly. Take it. For if you are a real inventor
you can make another. A Commissioner of Patents
for
annual report once said that not one patent in
a hundred ever returned to the inventor so much as
the amount of the patent fee.
When to sell a patent is, therefore, as important
as how to sell it. And if I were asked when a patent
in his
should be sold, I would answer, whenever you have
an offer, if you are not going to exploit it yourself.
Value and necessity will dicker to set the price.
I once sold a patent, that had but three years
to run, for ten thousand dollars; even money,
more
no
cents.
At another time,
dollars for a
I
was
offered a thousand
newly issued patent,
267
and did not take
A
few weeks later it wasn't worth anything at all.
Again, no sense.
Perhaps as apt an illustration as any I know
it.
showing the danger of holding a patent too long,
occurred in street car trolley development.
The
was
me
the
told
for
the
story
by
attorney
greedy
patentee. He had obtained a patent on a currentcollector which ran on top of the trolley wire.
It
was the best of many, and embodied a very ingenious
scheme for passing the cross-overs and wire supports,
and he was offered $350,000 for it. The attorney
urged him to take it, but the inventor wanted a
The following Tuesday a patent was issued
on the present simple under-running trolley-arm,
and immediately the $350,000 patent was absolutely
million.
worthless.
While a great many inventors have made fortunes
out of their discoveries, I don't believe it has often
been the quest for wealth that has kept them pa
Like the scientist and the
tiently pegging away.
artist, the inventor has an ideal which is very satis
fying to him, the pursuit of which, however, not only
most often keeps him a poor man, but unfortunately
works a hardship on those near and dear to him.
This situation, that is, the necessity of earning daily
bread for himself and his, has, I believe, wrecked
the completion of more worthy inventions than any
other cause. If the backers of a new idea had the fore
sight to also finance the inventor's domestic needs,
many great inventions would reach their fruition
which are now lost to the commonwealth when the
inventor must turn aside to earn money to feed the
family.
I have
spoken
of
several Washingtonians
268
and
their great discoveries. Has it ever occurred to any
of you to note that Washington is the birthplace of
more revolutionary inventions, which have been the
foundation of great industries of enormous wealth,
than any other ten miles square on the face of the
From Washington
earth?
Morse stretched
to Baltimore Professor
his first telegraph wire; on Rock
of his steamboat
Creek Fulton tried the model
miniature
with electric lights;
here Dr. Bell developed the telephone, Tainter the
wax cylinder phonograph, and Berliner the disc talk
ing machine; both type-casting machines were in
vented in the District; Fessenden, an army officer,
invented his wireless telegraph system here; the
Cleremont; nearby Professor
electric railway
first
Henry
and lighted
laid a
it
power flying machine was made
and here the motion picture machine was
successful
here,
perfected.
Nor does
this
exhaust the
list
by any
means.
Again,
many
inventions are conceived before the
them, and the inventor dies un
rewarded and unknown, or even in disgrace. My
father tells me he rode in an automobile at the
public
is
ready for
Philadelphia Centenial in 1876. Too soon. We pity
Professor Langley now that the airplane is a great
success; but his misfortune was a jest when an acci
dent wrecked his man-carrying machine at
launching.
Public prejudice also has held back
its first
many an
in
ventor. Early railway trains were required by law to
be preceded by a man on horseback with a red flag,
and the law has never been repealed. Even to this
day street-surfacing rollers, having a speed of but
two miles per hour, must be preceded by a man on
269
City fathers don't want automobiles to shy
the
at
thing and run amuck.
More than a hundred years ago an English inventor
foot.
was ruled
the highways be
cause he ran into a neighbor's fence at the frightful
speed of five miles per hour, and knocked off several
palings. Whereupon laws were passed limiting motor
of a horseless vehicle
off
This law was re
vehicles to four miles per hour.
sponsible for British backwardness in automobile
development, for it was not repealed until 1906.
The Great Eastern steamship was not a paying
investment, not because she wasn't successful, but
because she was too far in advance of progress. We
have much larger vessels now, but it was nearly
fifty years before another of her size was built, al
though she has the distinction of laying the first
Atlantic cable.
Again, one
is
often astonished to note on
what a
tiny thing, apparently, an inconsequential thing, a
gigantic business may hinge. For example:
The present great telephone industry literally
turned on the half rotation of a screw. Two inventors
contending for priority before the U. S. Supreme
Court used identical exhibits as proof, i.e., small
boxes in which a certain screw was employed, and
the decision was given to the party who proved that
he had turned the screw a half revolution more than
the other, for his turn of the screw made one box a
successful telephone transmitter while the other was
a failure.
The prototype
motion picture projecting
machine, the one type which is today used the world
over, differed from others principally in the size of
the shutter opening. One was a success while the
of the
270
others were failures.
But
as a difference of degree
is
not patentable, the patent examiner would not con
sider the case.
However, when the Commissioner
was shown that it was the difference between success
and failure a patent was granted, a patent which
later was sustained by the courts, and the basis of
an investment of a thousand million dollars already.
And again, on occasion, an invention, wonderful as
it may be, lacks just some little thing to make it
commercially useful, until presently some keener
mind sees its true application and the flood gates of
business are opened. It was the central telephone
exchange that made the
scientific
toy widely useful;
the motion picture
the entertainment of the masses, and already the
while the five-cent theatre
fifth largest
made
business in the world.
Research work
new
idea in inventing, and
concerns
have adopted the
most large manufacturing
is
the
employing hundreds of young men, mostly
college graduates, to improve present apparatus and
methods, the patents being taken out in the name of
plan,
the inventor, and assigned to the company.
A
notable example of this is the metallic tungsten
lamp-filament which the scientific books told us
could not be made, and explained why. But it was
done because of the unlimited force of money and brains
a big concern was able to bring to bear on the subject.
It will be noticed, however, that the old rule still holds
good, i.e., paid men only improve, while the revolution
ary discoveries still continue to be made by the poor
man
a further evidence that money has no brains.
The American patent system was founded in 1792,
and the early patents were signed by our first Presi
dent, General George Washington,
271
and Secretary
of
Thomas'
State
Jefferson.
The whole
thing was
a
very hazy conception, however, for the thought in
the mind of the founders seems to have been that
there could be no new inventions, but only improve
ments on old ones, and so the act declared that the
inventor should "positively specify and point out
the part, improvement and combination" which he
claimed as his own invention.
As further evidence, Commissioner Ellsworth,
in
1864, contemplating the thirteen thousand patents
which had then been issued, made this prediction:
"The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes
our credulity, and seems to presage the early arrival
at that period when human endeavor must end."
But more than a million patents have been issued
by the United States since then, making by far the
any country in the field of inven
whether reckoning by number of pioneer pro
greatest record of
tion,
ducts, their ingenuity, or their far-reaching effects,
and in the greatest diversity of fields.
The preamble
of our
United States patent
alleges
to guarantee the inventor the exclusive right to his
invention. But, in fact, it does nothing of the kind.
A
patent on a valuable invention is more correctly
a governmental license to litigate, and that with
many an inventor is impossible, although, in the
hands
of the right party, a patent
is
the foundation
good to a great many.
Whether the United States is preeminent in the
more scientific industries because of, or in spite of
her patent system, may never be known, perhaps,
but certain it is that no one in all history has worked
so hard to make hard work easy as has the Yankee,
and he is still at it, and not likely ever to stop.
of great
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